We should give money to Africa

The main problem I have with your point of view is that you are saying that poverty in Africa is worse than poverty in the United States. While this is, in a vacuum, true, it leads us to make bad policy decisions if we think of it in this way. Poverty is a huge issue in the United States; when over 40 million people cannot have healthcare, it is not something we should just brush off. What do you think is one of the main killers in America? It's undoubtedly poverty and its side effects, when people cannot afford proper medical care for their illnesses. We may not have as many people as Africa does, but if 12% of our own citizens cannot afford the basic components of a reasonable lifestyle, it is not prudent for us to address other nations' issues first. Your argument rests on the idea that poverty is decreasing in America, and that it's some sort of linear trend; this is false. Poverty has been at least at the 12% level for many years, and while there may be small fluctuations, we must face the fact that we are not dealing with the poverty situation here correctly. We've had a "war on poverty" since LBJ's presidency, and where have we gotten on it? Really, nowhere. If we don't have the infrastructure to deal with poverty, we would not be able to deal with Africa's; not to mention, we shouldn't. The United States government has an obligation to protect its citizens' welfare before anyone else's. Also, if getting out of poverty were as easy as just "getting a job," don't you think our poverty rate would be much lower? Also, we unfortunately do not live in a Utopian world where we can just give people money in order to deal with the problems they are facing. You have said that we should just give private organizations, hospitals, disease centers, etc. money and that would solve the problem. That is nowhere near as easy as it sounds, and as I said, money is only some of the issue that is the problem. Even if we give African organizations money, they don't have the infrastructure to use it effectively. In order to combat AIDS, and poverty, the African nations must band together in order to have a coherent solution. Otherwise, you'll be giving a few thousand dollars to individual organizations, and while that may solve some short term issues, it will not do anything on the long-term scale, and this is the most important point of view. The only way to effectively solve African poverty is by setting up a long-term infrastructure that can provide services to Africans to help them out of poverty. Just giving money to African organizations will not do anything effective, and I would like to see some evidence disproving that if I am to believe otherwise. Finally, you have essentially conceded my argument that is is not the United States' responsibility. Saying we have some sort of obligation to the African people to deal with their problems is inviting a host of international interventions in the name of protecting other nations' citizens, and this is what justified the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and what could justify other bad policy actions in the future. Getting involved in international affairs to help other humans is not a bad things; but how can you say that Africans "need it more" than others?