Quote from drcha:
Agree with sending them personal funds--those people are suffering in ways that we will never have to. That's the E in ET: the fact that you are even posting here means you are one of the lucky few on this planet. Almost entirely the luck of the draw.
From a national perspective, I guess we are supposed to think that America is trying to win hearts and minds. But what good is that when those hearts and minds are not free? The Pakistani people cannot change things over there any more than we can.
The world is run by a small group of megalomaniacs and narcissists. Nearly every national leader is one, and most legislative and military bodies are largely composed of them. The sooner we face that, the sooner the rest of us who have feelings and consciences can try to figure out what to do about it.
Personally, I have no idea what to do about it. My admittedly extremely lame approach is to basically ignore it. Get up, work hard, trade a little, party a little, go to sleep, (what was the Meaning of Life? "take some vitamins, be nice to your mum"), vote against some of these asshole incumbents, send a few bucks to Pakistan, try to enjoy myself until I am on the other side of the grass. What else can we do? I'm open to any suggestions that don't involve gurus or guns. We have enough of those already.
All these arguments about Democrats, Republicans, Tea Bags and everything else are misplaced. The groups in power like to throw fat on the fire to keep us arguing with each other and distract us from the real problem: that all the individuals in political power are interested only in themselves and in keeping their fat asses in a position of power. They will kill your sons and daughters (not to mention the sons and daughters of other nations) to do it. Whether we as a nation send funds to Pakistan or not, it gives us (the masses) something to argue about--something that has nothing to do with the real problem. As long as the powers that be can whip up some widespread anger, pride, fear, or whatever the emotion du jour is, there is no danger that you will begin to focus on the real problem.
Maybe traders--some of whom have necessarily learned to operate on something other than emotion--could be a good resource for coming up with some alternatives.
I guess I have really hijacked this thread but I don't know why it's on Wall St. News anyway, except that all news seems to qualify as WS news in this news-driven market.
I am totally on board with everything you said. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but it is refreshing when you find someone who does think similarly. More than just agreeing with you, I've been more and more actively pondering these questions lately.