How Do We Do It?

So in my last blog I was talking about greed. I mentioned that if the wealthiest 400 Americans liquidized about 1 Billion of their wealth then they could distribute $10 000 to 39 960 000 American's on the poorer side of the spectrum. Anyway I was in a conversation this afternoon and I brought this little tidbit up to much disagreement. After a tense statement about teaching people to fish instead of giving them fish I realized that upon writing this it was not a solution to the problem but merely an example of how extreme the wealth is at the top. This has gotten me thinking again though. What solution's are there to the problem?

Before chasing solution's I believe that it would be wise to set a few goals. A society I would be proud to be a part of would value each contributing citizen equally and give equal opportunities of success to all, it would meet the most basic needs of all and it would be easily able to set aside greed in order to maintain a fair lifestyle for those on the bottom of the income scale.

Solutions are needed as compared to a solution. The reason being that their are too many factors contributing to the problem for one solution to make a lasting effective change.

As an example if Canada's 21 residing billionaires liquefied an average 1 Billion each (which is easily doable considering the top 2 have over 21 billion in wealth between them) and distributed it to Canada's lowest working poor they could raise this year's income by $10 000 for 2 100 000 Canadians. This would be ineffective as a route to change though because it is unsustainable and doesn't teach those poor how to escape their circumstances or alter the circumstances to their betterment.

So we need a multi faceted solution. We realize that their are multiple problems but now we need to identify them. Among them are a growing rich poor gap, an inability to live modestly, a trickle down Government mindset, the stronghold of multi-national big business, and continued discrimination between Race, Religion, Gender...

I believe we'll all be far better off if as a World we learn to live modestly without the drive to constantly purchase, consume and be entertained, we learn that wealth should be redistributed in a bottom up (trickle up) fashion, not a trickle down fashion, we move intentionally away from massive multi-national corporations to smaller local companies and businesses and we embrace true equality across the board not only in the way we view people but in the opportunity given to each person to succeed. Given this as a first end goal seems like a good start, so lets get their.

So how do we conquer this unquenchable drive to purchase, consume and/or be entertained? What fuels it? The media and advertising for sure, but what else? What inside us makes need so much stuff and antics?

How do we show out Gov't that we at the bottom need the money. Not people at the top? The people at the bottom so often sadly don't have the capacity to save and so they are trapped into giving all their money to the next man up anyway. If you give a cheque to the poor the rich will inevitably still get that money, but, they'll just get it later and will have had to do something for it.

How do we move away from brand names? Big corporations? Could you live without Wal Mart, Zellers, Sears, the Bay, K Mart and whatever huge department stores are around? What about Grocery stores? Could you survive off only independent retailers? If you think you could, you should try. Then help us learn how to do the same.

How do we create equality and create equal opportunities for all people? What must we do for the Gangster child from Compton to have the same shot in school as the rich white girl in OC? How do we forget passports and citizenships when we hear about suffering and do for the enslaved child soldiers in Africa what we do for the abducted child from the next state/province over?

These aren't easy questions. It'll take guts to come up with real answers. Now if you are thinking the answers will be hard the living of these ideals will be a whole new story as well. It may mean being the extremely poor one for a season. I really believe that God is in this struggle for a better expression of living and so his hand of blessing will not be far behind our labours. So when persecution comes and lightning threatens your sails, buckle down and press on. Even without sails or a vessel God is in control and I know I trust him with my life. If I am floating aimless on the central Pacific current, in a war zone's "no mans land" or here typing peacefully at my computer God is in control and he knows what is best for me, you and the world.