Thought this quote was fitting. Quote by John Berger.
"The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing."
6 interested person(s)
I don't think people know why we live anymore. Why we do anything. So to pick at a problem like this is further down the line. I mean, currently what are our goals as a society. People bitch about space travel, but what else should we do, just make babies, adn then spend money feeding them. At least with scientific research it is some kind of forward momentum. It's quite possible also that at this point theres a war between those who are poor out of politics and history and those that are poor because they have no ability to be more then the lowest rung of society. I'm sure people wouldnt admit it but as much as every person isn't athletic enough to play in the MLB, neither then is everyone intelligent enough or enough of a benefit to society to make as much money as everyone else.
I need to mention that I don't think I am above consumerism I am very much apart of it. I buy way to much music, have too many pairs of shoes and buy more clothes then I need.
I think your point about scientific research is a good one. but before we do that i think we need to focus spending more money on education and providing health care (more policy than science here even though sci research has a role to play).
as a society what we do best is act scared (or government often does the scaring) and when you are scared you consume. its genetic.
your point about intelligence and poverty is an interesting one that i am going to have to think on further.
thanks for the dialogue by the way.
poverty exsists when 95% of the wealth if controlled by 5% of the population, leaving 5% of the wealth up in a dog fight for the rest.
I'm surprised I didn't get a scathing reply to what I wrote...weird. Not because of what I expected out of your blog, but because of the reactions I normally get to my not-normal hypothesis.
I've actually been reading a multitude of books on this topic lately from a variety of perspectives: secular, Buddhist, Hindu, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, etc.
I've actually been planning a big blog entry on it once I finish the last two books I'm reading on the subject.
"I'm sure people wouldnt admit it but as much as every person isn't athletic enough to play in the MLB, neither then is everyone intelligent enough or enough of a benefit to society to make as much money as everyone else."
This is an interesting point and not one I agree with. Ideally I would like to see a society where there is justice. One form of this is social justice, meaning that every child is given the same opportunities to suceed. If they choose not to take advantage of those opportunities it is on them. But the system now many of those that aren't intelligent enough etc. were never afforded those opportunities. Many ARE intelligent but grow up in an area where there are failing schools, they don't have health care, or come from broken homes. Them succeeding is then not based on their given intelligence but the failings of society to provide equal opportunities for all its citizens.
Post a Comment