Perspective

[abifae]

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[me&thegals]

You make good points, abifae, but remember that many, many of the people we are compared against have no potable water, electricity or vehicles. It's not like they're living the good life in Africa, only their $2 is equivalent to our $20,000. SO many world citizens do not have enough of anything. Consider the millions upon millions who die every year from lack of food and water, malaria and other preventable diseases...

When compared to many people in America, I earn very little and work pretty hard to earn some of it (the farming part). But, as pointed out in another thread, compared to the world my life is steeped in luxury. I have a house with floors instead of dirt, a functioning car, health insurance, more clothing and food than I need, time and $ for hobbies, living children and spouse, no war, no famine or drought (yet), land to grow, hunt and otherwise procure wild food, etc. And I can't remember the last day my husband didn't have coffee and I didn't have chocolate.

It surely all is relative, isn't it?

 

[abifae]

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[Big Daddy]

We need to find something similar so we can see how Americans compare. Yes we do have it a lot better than the 3rd world countries. Of course we have always known that. Even the poorest of us know that they are better off than those in 3rd world countries.

 

[Big Daddy]

You make good points, abifae, but remember that many, many of the people we are compared against have no potable water, electricity or vehicles. It's not like they're living the good life in Africa, only their $2 is equivalent to our $20,000. SO many world citizens do not have enough of anything. Consider the millions upon millions who die every year from lack of food and water, malaria and other preventable diseases...

When compared to many people in America, I earn very little and work pretty hard to earn some of it (the farming part). But, as pointed out in another thread, compared to the world my life is steeped in luxury. I have a house with floors instead of dirt, a functioning car, health insurance, more clothing and food than I need, time and $ for hobbies, living children and spouse, no war, no famine or drought (yet), land to grow, hunt and otherwise procure wild food, etc. And I can't remember the last day my husband didn't have coffee and I didn't have chocolate.

It surely all is relative, isn't it?

Can you even begin to imagine what it must be like to live in a country where infants routinely die from no pre natal care and the bad nutrition of their mother. Children dying of diseases that are so easy to prevent. The whole situation is so sad. Our country has a large percentage of the wealth in the world and most of that wealth is spread amongst a relatively small percentage of the population. Go figure.

 

[me&thegals]

Right. It is obvious. The site, though, is comparing us to the rest of the world...

I think it brings up an interesting question. Should we be grateful to be doing so much better than most of the planet, or is it more appropriate to compare ourselves to the rest of our compatriots?

Personally, I find it much more useful for my own life satisfaction to remember how incredibly stinkin' good I have it compared to most of the planet. I don't care if Joe and Jill Jabillion $ have indoor pools, yachts and limos anyway.

I think it's also useful to see things from a global perspective so that rather than striving for what J&J kazillion have, we might instead be content with what we have and possibly work for others to move upwards towards us. Just thinking out loud.


ETA: Oops, BD. Our messages crossed in cyberspace That's exactly my point. If I'm always striving to meet the super-high wealth standards of North America, I completely miss the fact that a very small donation of my $ could instead give 100s of children in Africa malaria netting.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time is an excellent book by Jeffrey Sachs that describes the perfect storm that creates longstanding poverty in certain places on our planet. The thrilling (and chilling) part for me was how little $ it would take to help some of these places out of the cycle with basic things like electricity, internet connections, immunizations, malaria nets.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree that wealth is measured differently in other countries. In some cultures, women wear their wealth on their arms in the form of bracelets, while they carry their clothing in a handwoven basket on their heads to do their wash in the river.

Some countries measure wealth by the number of goats, cattle, chickens, etc. that one may possess. They wouldn't know exactly what to do with paper money except burn it. Electricity? Scarey and not to be trusted.....goats? Now goats are real currency and food stored away in baskets in the hut are wealth.

When I lived off-grid I didn't consider those who had more as being more wealthy...they just had different stuff, usually useless stuff that could not be used for any real purpose.

So, it is true...wealth is truly relative.

 

[abifae]

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[Big Daddy]

Right. It is obvious. The site, though, is comparing us to the rest of the world...

I think it brings up an interesting question. Should we be grateful to be doing so much better than most of the planet, or is it more appropriate to compare ourselves to the rest of our compatriots?

Personally, I find it much more useful for my own life satisfaction to remember how incredibly stinkin' good I have it compared to most of the planet. I don't care if Joe and Jill Jabillion $ have indoor pools, yachts and limos anyway.

I think it's also useful to see things from a global perspective so that rather than striving for what J&J kazillion have, we might instead be content with what we have and possibly work for others to move upwards towards us. Just thinking out loud.


ETA: Oops, BD. Our messages crossed in cyberspace That's exactly my point. If I'm always striving to meet the super-high wealth standards of North America, I completely miss the fact that a very small donation of my $ could instead give 100s of children in Africa malaria netting.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time is an excellent book by Jeffrey Sachs that describes the perfect storm that creates longstanding poverty in certain places on our planet. The thrilling (and chilling) part for me was how little $ it would take to help some of these places out of the cycle with basic things like electricity, internet connections, immunizations, malaria nets.

I would love to feel like I could help with a donation I could afford. My problem is that most of the organizations are rife with corruption. Only a small percentage of your donation actually gets through. The way of the world.

 

[me&thegals]

I would love to feel like I could help with a donation I could afford. My problem is that most of the organizations are rife with corruption. Only a small percentage of your donation actually gets through. The way of the world.

That's the cool part about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They watch the dollars very closely, looking for the greatest impact per $.

I will get a site for you my sister told me about. I've lost track. It has a pie chart showing the % of dollars spent in each charity on overhead, administrative expenses, actual work, etc. I'll get back to you on that.

I come from a family of charity cynics, never giving (until recently) because they were fearful of wasting their $. It's a fearful thing to me that people hear stories of charities and gov't gone bad and now will not give. Not classifying you all together, but I think it is a common fear.