An Alternet columnist evinces a bit of skepticism about the American welfare empire! Tell it, sister:
What can we, in America, know of how it feels to be a citizen of any other country in the world?
We do not have brigades of well-meaning volunteers from, say, the Netherlands arriving in our neighborhoods with bold promises of teaching us how to run our schools. We do not have representatives from Singapore engaging in optimistic efforts to reform our legislature, or teams from France trying to develop our media. Scruffy Swedish twenty-somethings, fresh from college, do not take up residence in our midst and teach us about the importance of government-sponsored healthcare.
Though we pride ourselves on traveling the world to help solve its problems – charity or bust – we do not know how it feels to be always on the worse end of the expression, “It is better to give than to receive.”
Actually, dear, we have a homegrown army of social workers and other buttinskis who pester the ever-lovin’ hell out of U.S. citizens, but I’ll save that story for another occasion. You’re on the right track.