Without intending to annoy the millions of good Americans out there, I think Americans are very selfish.?

Question

the few who have visited less priviledged people will agree with me. What do you think. Please try to substantiate

Answer 1

Wow, I so agree and I'm so very selfish.
So many times I've had nothing much to give my son out of poverty and illness on my part.
And I've told him, hey,
you don't ahve to walk fourteen hours a day in the Guatemalan jungle just to get two mangoes for a family of five, to liven up your grass soup!
And I'm still jsut as lost in my little world as you can be...
but I was brought up poor, and I was brought up as mother's helper when she babysat. So, as much of an only child as I am, I can still go without and all. I'm very considerate of my boyfriends' money (through the years, in various monogamous relationships, that is) and I don't really want many material things anyway.
So, yeah, I guess it all goes back to what's normal for us.
It's sad, but it's natural anyway.

Answer 2

In today's society, more than ever your statement is quite true. We are known as a "consumption nation" because of how much the people of this nation "consume" in terms of our materialistic lives, as well as other factors.

The "proof" of this, for me, is in the hypocrisy we use in many ways. A great many people who complained about gas prices due to the oil "conspiracy" are doing so while driving gas-guzzling SUVs. They contribute to the oil demand, yet insist that's not why prices were high. We consume enough food (per person) in a month to feed a "third world" village for a year or more, yet idolize celebrities that are deathly underweight. We seem to value style infinitely more than substance, while the cost of that style could be used towards helping others.

I feel that this notion is also the prominent view that the media provides to the rest of the world, while the rest of us, who are hard working, honest, simple individuals just go about our daily lives glad not to be noticed. The thing that you must be careful with in making this statement though, is the thought that you do not have to be "selfless" to be "not selfish". There is a middle ground that goes unnoticed.

Answer 3

Would that be ALL Americans, some Americans,or a vast majority of Americans?

There are several thousand Americans in a foreign land who are UNSELFISHLY giving of themselves, fighting a war ( wrong or right) for what they believe will ultimately help not only themselves but the people of that land. I strongly disagree that ALL Americans are shallow and self interested.

A great majority of American people are more concerned with their immediate comfort than the greater good, but at the end-of-the-day Americans have good hearts and are not all terrible selfish people.

This is also true of other people throughout the world.

So, I would have to strongly disagree.

Answer 4

Yes indeed, I'm going to have to agree with you on that one.