TI-Burr-Brown parts shartage?

It wasn't designed to flatter anybody; the author admits he didn't like the statistics he found. OK, stay selfish and smug.

$50K this year.

You are recommending the New Testamant as a guide to behavior? I don't expect rewards from helping people.

John

any

The author may claim that he didn't like the statistics he found - you are welcome to believe him - but I imagine that the publisher was delighted.

The "selfish" you haven't established. "Smug" would be a state that I'd aspire to but I pay too much attention to ill-informed criticism to imagine that I've made it yet.

It would be nice to have that kind of disposable income.

There is something a bit tacky about boasting about how generously you give to charity. People do take the New Testament seriously (which is a bit odd, considering the way we now know it came together) and they've been doing so for quite a while now, so that some of its precepts have become the ground rules for western society.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

any

You asked.

What I always find interesting is how people actually act, as opposed to what they preach. All of the people in this ng who have called Americans obese have admitted to being overweight themselves. People who call themselves liberals ("all of the children of the world are my childrenseem to be the least likely to actually do anything to help others. "Experts" on various technical subjects can't do the simplest math. Talk is cheap.

You won't read the book - you have dismissed it already - because you wouldn't like the facts it presents. So much for intellectual, well, anything.

John

OK, read the book and give me your thoughts.

John

Bill, whether you guys in Europe believe it or not Matthew 6:3-4 is exactly how a lot of people here in the US do charity. Most of our friends make sure that only the IRS gets to know about that (if they want a deduction). But they don't boast about it.

Then there is a whole army of people who just help, and that doesn't have to be monetary. But it does cost a lot of time. A whole lot if you are dealing with elderly, sick or dying people.

Sometimes volunteers can quickly be on the receiving end. Totally blew me away: My back went out, big time. Could barely move. Wife had a complicated arm fracture at the same time. Church called. "We'll bring food all of next week" .. "No, we are fine, really" .. "We thought you'd say that but we'll come anyway"...

We try to live by it ;-) (emphasis is on "try")

That's how it ought to be.

That's the America I know and love.

...Jim Thompson

As most are aware, I've had tens of thousands of dollars of medical procedures in the past year, total out-of-pocket cost, $235/month in combined "B" and supplemental premiums.

...Jim Thompson

The Dem/Repub, liberal/conservative thing is silly. The world is actually separated into people who try to make it a better place, and the people who don't.

John

Same for us. It's the American way of life.

It does have some distinct advantages to be over 65 ;-)

People in the poverty industry like to say stuff like that.

The problem with poverty and diet in America is obesity, not hunger. I think some people are just not genetically adapted for the European diet of wheat bread, butter, cheese, meat. Add colas and TV dinners and fast foor burgers and pizza, and Native Americans (including Mexicans) and Pacific Islanders and many others bloat out and get diabetes. Food is incredibly cheap here; glucose shortage isn't the issue.

John

Yes... except that you ARE over 65 :-(

...Jim Thompson

Benefit/cost ratio.

It is truly amazing to me how the most vociferous of the critics of the US are the MOST IGNORANT!

What cage do you live in, Slowman?

We certainly DO have a social security system. I, myself, receive Social Security Benefits of $3000/month AFTER deductions for extra insurance plans I subscribe to. I also get a pension from GenRad. I also earn income from consulting ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Huh?

Ok, our neighbors think we are geezers because we don't have cable, no DVD player, no TiVo, no satellite, no big screen TV, no muscle cars...

any

Which justifies not reading the book? Well, whatever works for you.

It's company money. I could have bonused myself this much, but I don't need a lot of money - a new VW every 15 years keeps me happy - and the tax accounting is simpler if the company expenses it.

Not as tacky as giving nothing. And you did ask. I think everybody with a decent, or even modest, income, living in the West, recipients of amazing resources and luck, should do something personal to help the miserable of the world. For a fraction of what you spent educating your sophisticated palate, Doctors Without Borders could do a dozen clef palate surgeries in Africa or Asia.

John

How'd you do that? I thought it maxes out somewhere below $2k even if you paid into it for half a century at full bore.

Are you slowly easing off or still going full blast?

No. I was saying the penalty for the benefits is that are truly over

...Jim Thompson

My benefits combined with the spouse benefit (even though she didn't work a job since college).

Hell-bent for leather. It's fun ;-)

...Jim Thompson