It amazes me that despite all our home-grown problems, particularly Japan's pension and health care fiascos, the government can still pull $560 million out of its backside to fight Aids and other diseases in Africa. That brings Japan's contributions to $1.5 billion since 2002.
Do taxpayers have no say whatsoever in how our taxes are used? Would they agree to this? I certainly don't. Leave foreign aid to charities and use taxes for things that directly benefit the taxpayers.
This kind of spending isn't unique to Japan, and I'm blown away people let their governments throw money abroad that should be used at home. I suppose they're too busy watching American/Pop Idol or SmapxSmap to care about politics.
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Do taxpayers have no say whatsoever in how our taxes are used? Would they agree to this? I certainly don't. Leave foreign aid to charities and use taxes for things that directly benefit the taxpayers.
This kind of spending isn't unique to Japan, and I'm blown away people let their governments throw money abroad that should be used at home. I suppose they're too busy watching American/Pop Idol or SmapxSmap to care about politics.
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Hmm yes - it's that data package that I'm sure will get the customer. Come Spring...That Andy Warhol dude is seriously bad-ass....Yes, sorry, didn't realize the submitter (uktokyoite) was not the author as well. ...I got it - sorry sometimes I'm a little slow. Honestly jcolling3k I didn't realize...As DBR said, jcollin3k's frustration should be aimed at the blogger in this case,...Hmm, jcollin3k, it seems as though I may have misunderstood the purpose of Japan...I appreciate that you have decided to jump on anyone doing the wrong thing but...Did you take all those photos? You said you only stumbled across them. So I...What a shame - I was looking forward to that tonight! Oh well - not meant to be....Nothing to do with me. That's all Google's work. I just typed in the name, chose a...
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I couldn't agree more! How about a certain country that is willing to leave children and people on fixed incomes without health insurance but can still find the money to fund an unpopular war?
Yeah. George W. Bush pulled the plug on condom shipments to Africa and used taxpayer money to fund the fight against AIDS there. How did he do it? He spent a huge amount on pharmaceuticals like AZT and the AIDS "cocktail", which is supposed to prevent HIV from turning into full-blown AIDS.
Basically, he just funneled taxpayer money to the heads of pharmaceutical companies, some of which are/were his close friends.
Same old shit here probably.
How about paying someone to design that weird Nara mascot? Talk about waste.
Seriously. If those babies dying of aids want some medicine, they should get jobs!
Yeah Nick you said it in my opinion anyway, exactly right. While we should be aware of the world's problems, taxpayers should be made more aware of where their money is going and have more say in it.