You can't take your money - save the starving!

I am appealing to wealthy people.

How can you sit on your billions and watch people starving to death?

There is no reason that people starve to death except political reasons. And the greed of rich people.

So we all sit around while millions are starving.

Don't be so greedy - you do not need all that money - go out and feed people!

UGH! I am so disgusted that you have not done that.

As for the French billionaires - save it, I am not impressed.

Good luck in the next world.

It's not as easy as billionaires giving away their money. It's how the billions that are already spent that is the problem. Most of that money never gets as far as the starving civilians, instead much is siphoned off by corruption and dodgy despots. In the case of Somalia, the Muslim extremists are refusing the help of western charities, so there is only so much money can do. A depressing situation.

that is an ignorant statement. Corruption is a basic human trait. Poor people and rich people are the same. Research shows that if you gave ten people the same amount of money, within five years each person would be in the same position they were in to start with.
It is not as simple as you think.

Originally posted by catwhoknowsplusone
I am appealing to wealthy people.

How can you sit on your billions and watch people starving to death?

There is no reason that people starve to death except political reasons. And the greed of rich people.

So we all sit around while millions are starving.

Don't be so greedy - you do not need all that money - go out and feed people!

UGH! I am so disgusted that you have not done that.

As for the French billionaires - save it, I am not impressed.

Good luck in the next world.

Nature has a cruel way of limiting the populations of animals that do not plan for their own existence.

You can run the argument both ways with that truism, Reality is a bitch.

(BTW: I'm relatively poor.)

Originally posted by catwhoknowsplusone
I am appealing to wealthy people.

How can you sit on your billions and watch people starving to death?

There is no reason that people starve to death except political reasons. And the greed of rich people.

So we all sit around while millions are starving.

Don't be so greedy - you do not need all that money - go out and feed people!

UGH! I am so disgusted that you have not done that.

As for the French billionaires - save it, I am not impressed.

Good luck in the next world.

I'm not rich, but I have considered what you are saying. This is something I have thought about my whole life. We see homeless every day begging for money on the side of the road. For several years, I have gone out and met some of these needy people and bought meals, clothes, gas and other items for them when I could help. I always avoid giving money unless I can see evidence that substance abuse is not present. Most of the time, I just give them attention and friendship.

After many interactions and conversations with people on the road, I have come to a few conclusions. What does Jesus mean in this verse?

Matthew 25
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

If we take this literally, we may think we need to minister material goods to those who are needy. Questions arise here: Are the needy in need because they are reaping what they have sown in life? Are they needy because they lack the opportunities in life that other have? Are they there by choice or have their choices brought them to the place of need? Is it my responsibility to give them a meal today knowing that they have no chance of feeding or clothing themselves in the future? Where does my goodness to them end and their willingness to change patterns of behavior begin? Can we fix a life of poor choices with one meal or a place to sleep?

And the biggest question of all: Do I risk my safety connecting to someone who cannot be trusted to take care of their own safety and well-being?

Obviously, I am speaking of those who are in need by their own doing. If we only consider those who are reaping what has been sown, how do we answer the questions above? Do the same answers apply to all who are in need?

From what I have determined, the answer is not money, goods or meals. Although we may want to answer those needs, the real answer goes beyond the temporal needs. Jesus was referring here to the needs of the heart. Feeding the poor should be seen as feeding--those in need--truth from our compassion and love. Giving drink is more than water. It is filling the thirst for attention and belonging in a child before they arrive on the street by their own actions. Compassion involves taking those you don't know and being present in their lives by example. A person in prison may only be in the prison they create from a life of poor choices and neglected need. Our presence and influence is the determining factor for so many people we see who are headed in the wrong direction. Influence meets needs much more than money ever can.

When we come to realize that money is not nearly as beneficial as time, we can come to understand that ministering to the poor is more about our own witness to others and less about opening the wallet. This will be true for the individual, the town, the city, the nation and the world. We're all in this together and our witness to others comes by our actions more than any other area. We can willingly choose to make the world a better place one interaction at a time. It may be a loan to a friend in need that never needs to be paid back. It may be a tank of gas for a stranger. It may be opening a door for someone. It may be giving attention to a child who is acting out because their parents are neglecting their needs.

Jesus also said that we should sell all our goods and give to the poor. Matthew 19:21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Does this mean we neglect our families to give all our goods away to others?

Pride causes selfishness. Selfishness takes for self and denies the needs of others. Do we lavish our wealth on our own desires or do we spend our money on the needs of our family? Do we purchase beer and cigarettes when our children lack school supplies? Do we provide a trailer for our family when we have a BMW with 20 inch rims in the driveway? Do we have a cellphone, satellite TV, the latest clothes and all the electronics the world can buy, but can't afford to spend time with our children?

I think what Jesus was saying is this: To find abundance and perfection in our own lives, we must give more and take less. This is a simple idea and applies to more than just our choices with our families. Selling our possessions represents giving of ourselves to others. The idea in both the verses I posted are the same.

Selling your possessions represents removing the detraction from the real life to be lived. If we focus ourselves on others first and ourselves last, we end up living life to its fullest.

Matthew 20:16

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

If we place ourselves last, we become first in the eyes of others. When we place ourselves first, we become least among men. Pride or humility. Money has little to do with it.

Originally posted by Thurisaz
that is an ignorant statement. Corruption is a basic human trait. Poor people and rich people are the same. Research shows that if you gave ten people the same amount of money, within five years each person would be in the same position they were in to start with.
It is not as simple as you think.

Very true. Rich and poor are what they are due to the poverty of the soul. A person is rich who realizes that money is not the means to happiness. We already possess what we need. All we need has been provided by God.

To live, we only lack movement and thought. These are the only two things we do to live. Other than moving and thinking, the rest is done by God. God makes the sun shine, the earth turn, the cones and rods in your eyes activate for sight, our food digest, the immune system to function and so on. There are billions of things in nature that take place each day and we do NONE of them. We think and we move. Other than these two things, we do NOTHING. Our needs are met by God. He provides the environment for us to do these two things. What we do with those two things defines who and what we are in life. We can choose to take or we can choose to give. That's it. Pride is objectivism and can only take. Humility before God is altruism and can only give.

If we take reward, we suffer. If we suffer for others, reward follows. Jesus said, Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


And have prices of food skyrocket due to inflation?

This is difficult. I 100% agree that the wealthy should donate a lot to help hunger, homeless & poverty. I know if I were rich I wouldn't be happy unless I was doing that very thing. But those in lesser situations should also do what they can. Of course those of us in the working and poverty classes will be able to help significantly less than those well off, but every bit counts.

I can't stand the arguments of well we should help our people, not other countries. Look people were all the same, so it doesn't matter were the help comes from or where its going as long as it gets done. Some organizations are based here in the states to help fight hunger and poverty while others travel around the globe to provide aid in even more dire situations. I help both here and abroad. We need to stop saying them and start thinking US. Because when it comes to life or death were all the same.

Found this website about a movement starting for National Sandwich day on November 3rd, 2011.
National Sandwich Day movement

I also started a post on ATS asking if anyone had heard of it. When it comes to feeding the hungry I'm always in . ATS related post here

I guess I'm one of those people you hate, because I do believe in taking care of Americans first.

I've seen firsthand the effects of poverty in America. This was 15 years ago. When I was working as a home health care aid, when I was going to nursing school, I took care of a little girl that was 13 and just starting to have 'female' needs. SHe had spinal bifida. She was in a wheelchair and had to self-cath at school. She wore diapers. She could not feel below her waste or sit up straight, but she was smart, and sweet, and funny.

Her mom was single and there were 6 kids total. The house they were living in was horrid, with a huge hole in the kitchen floor where you could see all the way to the ground. They kept it covered with cardboard. I saw what they ate and it was a bunch- a whole bunch- of generic mac and cheese. The kids did not have any toys, their clothes were shoddy and that house - O.M.G.

How could you rent a house to people like that and leave it in that condition? How could you KNOW that there were toddlers and a handicapped girl in that home and NOT fix the stupid floor?

I ended up spending more than I ever made from the state in taking care of this kid- the family could not afford hygenie items that we take for granted. It was no wonder the child did not have a clean mouth- there was no toothpaste in the house and mom couldn't afford any.

People can knock Masons all they want- but that's who helped this family. I told her mom that since she was crippled she should call them, and she did. They came out and saw that place- and they got that family a nice rental that they could afford that was safe and big enough, and close to a grocery store. (Transportation was a big issue with them and food, because though she got food stamps, she had no car.)

The Shriners also picked that child up and got her to the Shriners hospital and got her a decent wheelchair so she didn't get pressure ulcers anymore.

Now my dad's a mason, and I know that had that landlord been a mason he'd have paid heck for that mess- and I like that.

It might not seem like much compared to the starvation in Africa, but we all have to touch who we can if we can.

The first step to being decent is doing what you can to ease the suffering of others.

We have this screwed up attitude that the rich are somehow more special and more deserving. I really don't care if people give to Africa vrs hometown USA but people should strive to ease the suffering of others.

If you don't think it exists in America, get out there and look. Take food donations into a food kitchen at meal time. You''ll see the painfully thin people with their tarps taped to a bicycle and you'll realize that everything in that backpack or on that bike- that is their home and everything they have.

IF you are a slumlord or you exploit the poor, you should not think yourself high and mighty with all your accomplishments and possessions- you should be ashamed of yourself. Period.

Originally posted by catwhoknowsplusone
I am appealing to wealthy people.

How can you sit on your billions and watch people starving to death?

There is no reason that people starve to death except political reasons. And the greed of rich people.

So we all sit around while millions are starving.

Don't be so greedy - you do not need all that money - go out and feed people!



Good luck in the next world.

go contact the Gates Foundation, you know- the microsoft guy & wife...

they give out 10s-100s of millions a year...but for programs that are more than filling a belly temporarily..

i can appreciate your passion... but your five fish & three loaves cannot feed the poor all over the world 3X a day

20 billion dollars was given to save Haiti after their earthquake and most of that money was lost or stolen through fraud and the country is worse off because of it.

Having read the ops peace, how unfair that the wealthy sit on their money and not share it. However, there is a problem that the op failed to address in the statement and a few things that can be stated:

Give a man a fish and he will go hungry, teach a man to fish and he will never starve. Those words are more true today than ever, as it seems that no matter how many programs that are out there to help those that are less fortunate, people still fall through the cracks, and the question must be why?

For many years people have been working hard, some to pass money down to their children, and is that wrong for a parent to want to see their child succeed and go farther than they did while growing up, no, and no parent would ever admit to wanting to see their child fail. However, redistributing wealth is not the answer, as that leads to far greater poverty than what is out there already.

Many people are given opportunities to improve and advance themselves, but ultimately they have choices that they have to make, and those choices are either going to save or condemn them. We all have to hit rock bottom before we can improve it is a balance and an equation that we all have. That is life, the equation being: Pain | Pleasure. It is a balancing act, we do one thing and it tilts the scale to either one side or the other.

The programs are flawed, traps unto themselves, many people fail to see that once on the system there is no incentive to get off of them and people are content to remain as they are, rather than pull themselves up to get out of that mess. Children are born into that, and do not see the advantages of getting out and it starts a vicious cycle again.

It may seem cruel, but sometimes you have to let people fail to hit the rock bottom so that way they can improve their life condition, or else it starts up again.

Famines come and famines go, the question is what are those people going to do to help themselves? If there were programs that would help people feed themselves, I would be on it, along with many others, however, when those programs just feed and give food to them where the governments are corrupt and there is no accountability, reports of grain and other food supplies either going missing or rotting on the docks come up, it makes people leery about helping again, the next time.

Originally posted by Thurisaz
Research shows that if you gave ten people the same amount of money, within five years each person would be in the same position they were in to start with.

I'd like to volunteer for that study.

To the OP, I think your rant is wasted. Not too many billionares on ATS.

I wouldn't give my money to the Bill Gates Foundation if I had it.
It's giving with one hand and polluting and exploiting with the other.
It's a for profit foundation.

I'd never give money to any foundation or charity. I'd give food or whatever but never cash.

Originally posted by sdcigarpigGive a man a fish and he will go hungry, teach a man to fish and he will never starve.

when I read the post where Matthew was quoted, this verse came to mind...and then You posted it. It is very true. Long term hand outs actually have a negative effect on the esteem so they become dependent.

Sell the computer you used to post this thread and give the money away to the hungry,to someone with nothing ,You are one of the wealthy

When was the last time you were hired by a poor person to work for them? When was the last time you watched a poor person start a small company and then hire someone else who was poor. The billionaires maybe filthy rich but more often than not they provide for those that made them rich. Maybe not in the amounts you personally feel they should but the fact remains, if they didn't use the money to hire other people and then get taxed to death for doing so, more people would have jobs. The economy would be in much better shape and more would be given to charity for those less fortunate. Americans of all walks of life give more to other countries than anyone else on this earth!

Zindo

Funny thing about Jesus, the man was perfect in every way. He also said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I am not perfect, neither is anyone else in this world. Thus, I gotta marvel at the arrogance of all the folks so quick to cast stones at someone purely based on the size of the target's bank account. It is no more my business what Joe Moneybags does with his money than it is my business what the bum of the corner did with his to get in the position of begging that he now finds himself in. IMO, if a millionare spends their fortune on prophylactics and tatr sauce, that's great because it's them doing what they want with their own money. If they decide to throw fistfulls of it out the window of their BMW on the corner of Skid Row and Downtrodden Lane, then again, great for them. If they decide to burn it, great for us all because less money in the money chain equals added value to the dollar. It simply is none of my business any way they decide.