Why a country this rich is unable or unwilling to take care of the elderly and the homeless?

When it comes to our people we have no money, to help them. We have no problem giving money to underserving countries, that will never payback. America needs to take care of their own. Nothing is being done.

beause you are not willing to pay the taxes that it would cost to do so. Duh!

why do u think its so rich? self indulgence!

Over half of my income goes to one tax or another. Satisfied? I have no sympathy for somebody too lazy or stupid to take care of themselves.

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Which country?

The USA is in great debt.
The estimated population of the United States is 301,949,227
so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,174.56.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.29 billion per day since September 29, 2006!

I think it's more a reflection about FAMILY or lack thereof. Why are the family members of these people not involved in their lives? Responsible people with family members who are elderly or infirmed should be the ones primarily responsible. They are also the ones who best know the situation.

This is really not a governmental issue and shouldn't be treated as such.

It is strange since you constantly hear that paragraph in everyones speech about family values. In many countrys, developed and other wise, it is a cultural obligation to care for the family unit, extended and generational. Which alleviates allot of homelessness and uncared for elderly.
Aside from that, it seems homeless and elderly are considered weak, unproductive here. I'm not in favor of allot of social programs but I do expect a level of humanity to exist.

In the United States anyone can succeed, which means, if you don't succeed there must be something wrong with you.

Most wealthy countries have extensive welfare, education and health care programmes, which cost a lot of money but result in very high standards of living.

It goes beyond this, things such as telephones, Internet, power and water have traditionally been privatised, while in other countries they have been traditionally controlled by the government.

The United States has been successful with the way they do things, which privatisation in other countries have often been a failure.

Social welfare in the US is a big problem, with high crime rates, huge prison populations, third world diseases being common (TB for example) but on the other hand, the US has litlte unemployment and the worldest largest economy.

Personally, for a country as successful as the United States, I wouldn't be recommending a change to more common socialist democracy that underlines European politics, but perhaps more can be done in a practical way to solve many problems (better funding for education, health care and programmes to help homeless people get their life together).

This country is selfish. Look at all the Hollyweird's and their charities. How many of them are actually for the USA? Not many. Angelina Jolie and Madonna adopt kids from other countries when there are so many here that need families. They are doing it for the publicity. I don't have much, but I adopt a child off the angel tree every Christmas. If the rich did that ~ all the kids on the trees would have something to open up on Christmas morning. My mom always said "charity begins at home" Now I know what that really means.

With this i'm in agreement with you on, however corruption always seems to rob Peter to mislead us into believing it is to pay Paul, however somehow those funds end up in Jack the Ripper's hands. We need to stop this.

Most of the goverments at several modern countries,in order to opose fellow, or not such , have changed their idea/mission in to a more "agressive" policy in order to be more competitive.That effects some community fields, such as social provision, which seems to be less and less supporting.Human life seems to be as worthy as a number.

The elderly and homeless are considered not important enough to most to give a damn what happens to them. Yes, it is sick alright, but I am not one who can make such decisions.