dig deep now children !

[Farjo]

"But to get back to the original point of the thread, why are we giving aid to countries like China, I know they have extreme poverty but they are the richest country on earth in real terms. If they choose to buy American debt rather than educate or feed their own people why should we give them aid. The same with India, when you see children living on rubbish dumps but they can send rockets into space and we can't. I'm over simplifying  this but to all the ignorant bigots please explain why their taxes are given to other countries when this country has so many problems. They maybe smaller than the countries receiving aid but they mean a lot to those living here. "

Interesting questions Not sure what you mean by "they are the richest country on earth in real terms". They have the second biggest economy (to the USA) however there are a billion of them to share that money aruond, and given that some regions are richer than others it means that the other regions are still very very poor. Perhaps it's like asking Why do the gov't give money to inner London boroughs when London as a whole is very rich. Incidentally we gave 27 thousand pounds to china in 2012.

Perhaps it's the same in India - quite a lot of money now but huge inequalities and their national wealth may look big in total but is stretched across 1.2bn people. In a way you answered your own question - there are children living on rubbish dumps in extreme poverty.

How about another "outside your house" question If a rich family in your street never bought one of their kids any toys, would you want to buy that kid something to play with?