A couple of figures you might find interesting

[Varsity]

Amount pledged to Tsunami-struck areas by Western world: £1,530,000,000

Amount demanded by those same countries from the Tsunami-struck areas as national debt: £192,407,000,000

I draw no conclusions.

 

[WhiteZero]

China 0wnz the USA... literaly...
Someday they'll come to collect.

 

[Varsity]

China? That figure is just from the areas affected in the past few weeks, not world debt.

 

[el Chi]

My conclusion is that the Western world drops the Third World debt.

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

Two completely unrelated figures... awesome!

Do you know how long that national debt has been going for? Now, don't get me wrong, I think it would be pretty cool for the Governments to cancel the national debt but those figures aren't related.

What would perhaps be slightly more relevant is if you showed how much they had to pay in interest while they will be benefitting from the donations. I just don't like the misuse of facts and statistics e.g. Michael Moore.

 

[Zerimski]

They may be unrelated in the sense that the national debt has nothing to do with this specific instance of donating money, however this does not mean that they cannot be compared.

We, the Western World, are giving with one hand, yet at the same time, taking with an exponentially bigger, gloved hand waving in a threatening manner.

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

But it's like comparing that I have spent hundreds of pounds buying things from supermarkets and then I fell over once and they gave me some free frozen peas one day to put on my head.

Also, it's comparing a one time receipt to a total debt built up over history not to mention that the debt was just that - a debt for us doing them a favour. All countries have debt but the significant figure is how much they are paying rather than the total.

 

[Fat Tony!]

Here is a fact: There are plans to temporarily freeze the debts


edit:

a debt as a favour from us

There is no favour in debt, its a curse

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

My actual words were:

Also, it's comparing a one time receipt to a total debt built up over history not to mention that the debt was just that - a debt for us doing them a favour

And yeah, there are campaigns to either cancel part or all of the debt which is great. Personally, I like what Mexico did when they basically just said they weren't paying the interest payments anymore - nice one!

 

[Ol'Master]

Don't want to sound scroogey or anything, just playing devils advocate, but its been said that dropping debt from countries can lead to counties investing heavily in such things as arms deals instead of helping the country. Freezing the debt temporarily is the best way to go, as they can always put it back on if governments get out of hands. Not that I'm saying that these countries don't need the money, just that dropping the debt could lead to more problems. The countries ideally need more money in aid. Donate now!