I don't think it's that people don't care. There are a lot of angles to consider. When we hear about mass murders we have a little moment of "that is terrible, what is this world coming to" and move on. Why? They are just numbers. 30 people dead. Hundreds of workers working for $1 an hour to make shoes that can be made within seconds which are then sold for $200. A young, white male. All of these statements are generalized. There is no connection that links us to them; it is similar to when someone you don't know has been talking on their phone in the DMV about their child for the longest hour of your life. We don't hear in the news about how Susie Jr.s death affects her family and friends and that it systematically ruined their Thanksgiving. Though, is it even reasonable to ask that the news do such? It can only cover so much and if you added personal, individualized cases to it there would possibly only be one story a day. Now, even if we were to get that pseudo-connection needed to exert any signs of us caring in the slightest, I'm sure a majority of the people who really would do something if they could just don't know how to go about doing it. It is like we are living in a heavily guarded, transparent box. We aren't given the tools and guidance needed to help as efficiently as we are capable of. Don't get me wrong, the tools and guidance ARE there. We are just so distracted with our shiny toys and trying to fend for ourselves in a forever broken economy that we just aren't reasonably capable of gaining the willpower and getting into the mentality necessary to go out of our ways to pursue them. Even if none of the above applied to said person willing to help, there is so much red tape to go through in order to even gain enough power to do so. That one person could fight through all of the troubles that stand in the way of aiding others but their effort can only do so much. It has to be a largely collaborative effort. Those hungry people in other countries (to be honest, I am not sure why we emphasize them so much seeing that our very own country has it's own starving inhabitants living in awful conditions) aren't hungry because there isn't enough food to distribute. There aren't enough people willing and/or able to be distributors. Those that slave away and live in shacks so that we can live seemingly pompous lifestyles only know that way of life. I'm sure there are many who feel that there is no hope or that this is just how life is and are content with their position. They wouldn't know how to function in a free world. That doesn't make it any better but it makes it harder to reach out to those people because they aren't reaching out to us. You can label us the bad guys but in reality we are all products of our environments. Collateral damage, if you will.
"We are just so distracted with our shiny toys and trying to fend for ourselves in a forever broken economy that we just aren't reasonably capable of gaining the willpower and getting into the mentality necessary to go out of our ways to pursue them." Is that the way you want to live? As simple products of our environment? Do you want to be simply "Collateral damage" of the system we live in? Personally I don't think this is a sustainable way of life, not simply for Americans but as the world in general. I'm not saying that we should go out and personally help all of these people, I know that it is impossible to help all of them. But is it impossible to ask us as a people to at least recognize the work that goes into making our commodities? We need to at least disengage ourselves from worshiping the stuff that we buy.
No, it is not the way I want to live it is the way that many are currently living. It's terrible. How would you, personally, go about making it easier for those who have succumbed to that way of living to understand how they are able to buy the things that they buy? How would you make it easier for people to acknowledge the work that goes into making these commodities? I'm sure many already know how their luxuries are being produced. Do you feel that those that are working for close to nothing will appreciate being thanked for enduring those inhumane working conditions? That is like praying for something to happen rather than taking action. I'd feel undermined if I were being thanked for being a slave rather than being fought for to be taken out of those conditions.