Why are we so selfish?

Question

We waste copious amounts of food while children are starving in Africa, we spend money on magazines and CDs when they can't even afford health care. I hadn't even thought about this untill recently when did a topic on this in school and they showed us all these pictures of emaciated children. Why can't we just use what money we need to survive and give the rest to the people who need it more, like the ones in third world countries? We may like our luxuries, but are they really worth the lives of millions of little children?

I'm talking about individual people.

Answer 1

I agree with you, i find it appauling that people can buy and afford one or two cars when people in some countries cannot even afford to buy food, its terrible

Answer 2

There is something to be learned here and until it is learned, this type of thing will happen.. the world has good and bad. so if you send your money to buy groceries for these children, is that the solution to the problem? I don't think so. There has to be the development of a means to support the population on its own. Wells to cover droughts. Stored grain to cover poor harvest. Equipment to utilize fertile land. Until that, things will be bad somewhere. China was being over populated and depleteing all its agricultural resources. The government stepped in and limited most families to ONE child. Which they enforce Strictly. Of course, the grandmas and the grandpas want more grand chilren but this is a sacrifice that had to be made and it was made in THEIR OWN country with THEIR OWN government. Now if Africa would strictly limit the number of children born, then maybe they could care for the ones they get. A whole country working in cooperation would be able to work out their own solution. I"m tired of everybody thinking an american penny will cure all the ills of the world. Each country needs to deal with this. If they don't.. well welcome to the famine.
Who was that man that said "Give a man a fish and he will have a good meal. Give a man a fishing pole and teach him to fish and he'll have a good life." ?

Answer 3

Actually many of the wasteful items in question tend to be produced in poor countries and provide livelihood for poorer people.

Answer 4

We are not. We give billions to much need poverty countries but right now we have poor people right here in America. It's about time we start taking care of our own.

Are we selfish? No, but we should be...

Answer 5

we are selfish becuase we are human beings and its just a quality that we have. but, we can improve our selfishness by helping other people and thinking of them before oursleves.

Answer 6

Because of NAFS

Answer 7

capitalism

Answer 8

because we r american