dragongirl oh wow! Here - start reading! 🙄
The fact is there is enough food/money/resources/compassion/empathy/love to go round IF distribution/society were organised by people who weren't greedy and power hungry. But sadly TRUE communism (not the bastardisation Stalin & Mao et al twisted it into) will never happen.
'Look after our own first' well surely 'our own' is the entire human race? Divisions along arbitrary borders, false ideas of differing language/culture/religion/race are nonsensical!
"I don't see how that number of people can be blamed for years and years of lack of forethought and funding when it comes to the UK's infrastructure" me neither!
Much as I hate the current govt (actually I can't recall us having a govt I DID like) generally speaking in Britain (and the rest of the world) there have always been people concerned about and trying to help those not doing as well, (though its taken time to learn that eg mental illness/epilepsy/birth defects/learning disabilities are not satanic possession/a punishment from God etc.)
We've also included in that helping, supporting and welcoming immigrants (I don't include invaders in that).
We are currently a wealthy country and we do have the money to help both British born and immigrants/refugees.
Charities like comic relief DO also help British people as well as overseas. Some that people perceive as only helping overseas do (save the children, unicef, Red Cross).
That said
"Becoming? At which point in time were we all holding hands and at peace?" This is also true.
"No I think people have always been as they ever were. Some have empathy and some don't." This!
Since cavemen days there's been competition for resources. Evolution is based on 'survival of the fittest' 'adapt or die' but that doesn't mean we can't evolve to be more caring, more egalitarian.
"I think it's a swing. We swung too far to the left and now we are too far to the right" WHEN did we swing too far left?! 
"We're heading towards ww3. It's like the world leaders are steering us towards it." I think we're already there just no world leaders admitting it (though I think trump will first and soon).
I agree it's also that we feel overwhelmed -' there are too many people needing our help.'
"I judge. I judge all those out there who don't really give a damn about other people." Me too.
"The fact is, we have too many people for our infrastructure" except we HAVE the money/resources/skills/people to grow the infrastructure! In fact it would create jobs and boost the economy. So why don't we? It can't possibly be anything to do with the 1%ers wanting to keep power/control could it? 
"I think these bloody programmes on tv have a lot to answer for, you know the 'benefits street' type thing" well exactly BUT who do you think MAKES them? Edits them? Shows them? It's not the poor/disadvantaged is it?
I've had people assuming I'm 'at it' as I don't work due to illness/disability. They judge without knowing me or my circumstances and then if they do get to know 'oh but I don't mean you/people like you' well the vast majority of 'them' ARE people like me!
"The departments are so big and don't communicate either" the entire system is farcical - huge wastage in terms of cock ups alone!
"we have been giving money MILLIONS each year but nothing changes"
www.comicrelief.com/what-we-do/personal-stories
"The vast majority of aid the Government sends abroad is spent trying to ensure our security here. It is not really about aid, but about helping us. That is why the Government refuses to cut the international aid budget." This too - I know someone who works in this area, it's FAR more complex than people realise. It's also about trade relations, reciprocal agreements etc
"It's difficult to expect empathy from people who are struggling too." Actually lots of research shows those with the least give the most in terms of percentage of what they have. In money AND time - 'if you want something done ask a busy person'.
"The ones who don't work believe that they should get more, because others have more." I don't, and I don't know any unemployed person who does.
And YES absintheshots people ARE dying - in the streets, in their homes - as a DIRECT result of the cuts. The one I always think of is the David clapson. (Which I think may be who muffinbluffer is referencing but there have been other similar cases).
"I only meant we don't let people dying on the side of the road, bleeding after a car accident. We still stop and help" for starters you're backtracking. It was clear to me and others what you meant. For another YES people ill and in accidents are dying due to cuts to emergency services.
"Actually it was normal during Thatcher's time. We are going back there" and into Major's.
"if you benchmark the UK against many other countries then it is generally a good place to live, particularly as we have a welfare state and NHS. this is not that common." Have you lived overseas? I have, I have a lot of friends and family that do now. Most developed countries DO have their own form of welfare state and nhs.
GloriaV
"Before the system we looked after ourselves and our own." no 'we' didn't, we had high mortality rates, debtors prisons, baby farms, workhouses...some people who saw this was wrong worked and campaigned to change it.
"People are more accepting of so many things now including women, single parents, homosexuality, race in a way that would have been unthinkable in even my parents time." No I had grandparents who were accepting of everyone, their parents were the same. I don't buy the 'it's their age' defence of racism/bigotry generally.
"A lot of the 'golden age' after the war was funded by the fruits of the British Empire which was funded by exploiting a lot of other people overseas." Very true. Yes we had some money from USA but it didn't come in immediately, we also lured colonial inhabitants to the uk with promises of a welcoming land and well paid jobs. That went well
Helping doesn't have to mean imposing our culture, our will. When you help someone you do what they need you to do.
mrslupo "Ugh, this thread is reminding me of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls. There are a few people here who could learn something from reading it... although that would require some empathy, of course."
My belief system includes believing what you put into the world you get back threefold, good and bad. As I get older I see this as true more and more.
"It IS a dog eat dog world. In 46 years I have never seen anything to convince me otherwise" that's so sad.
I believe in the sentiment behind this quote:
"We all see what we want to see. Coffey looks and he sees Russians. He sees hate and fear. You have to look with better eyes than that."
"I don't know why people enter caring professions" I can't speak for others but I became a nurse because I enjoyed caring for others, I found it hugely rewarding, I liked the practical elements, I liked meeting people from massively different backgrounds, seeing them get better, or even just being able to make them feel cared for, feel valued (I worked mainly in elderly care which sadly means end of life care mostly).