Being out in nature is good for our minds, bodies, and spirits. We know that. But there’s no place close to where I live.
Wrong. Let the Nature Conservancy tell you where beautiful, soul-refreshing nature preserves are in your area. Go to Explore Nature in Your Area, choose your state from the drop-down menu just above the word “Features” in green, and find the natural wealth in your own backyard.
Then…get outside and enjoy!
Did you hear about the report (“An Economy for the 99%”) from Oxfam about where all the world’s money is? According to that international poverty-fighting group, it comes out this way: Add the wealth of all of the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people and it roughly equals the $436 billion held by eight (8!) men–not women or families but 8 individual men. Then add together the wealth of the 180 poorest countries and it does NOT equal the wealth of the ten largest countries.
And this inequality is increasing. Which widens the divisions in society.
Just something to think about.
Will machines make our lives easier and more comfortable in the future? Maybe it depends on who you are. In today’s Thursday Thought, Stephen Hawking takes a look into the future.
Most of us work hard at our jobs, hoping to get ahead, watching for the next pay-raise, and looking forward to the day when our family is not only out of debt but comfortable enough financially so we can stop worrying about taking a nice vacation. We in America have a better chance of that, of course, than elsewhere. But where, exactly, is the world’s pot of gold going?
The Wall Street Journal sums it up like this: “The super rich are getting super richer.” According to Oxfam, an international anti-poverty coalition, by next year 1% of people will own more than 50% of the world’s wealth–those 1% will own more than the rest of us combined.
Meanwhile, poverty, malnutrition, disease, homelessness, and wars fought over who gets to use natural resources increase throughout the globe. And the average frustrated working person struggles to keep from experiencing those conditions.
What’s the answer? In all fairness, I don’t know. I wish I did.
How long does an average worker have to work to make what a CEO makes in an hour? Would you believe one month? So, the CEO works 360 times harder than the worker, right? This example shows how skewed the wealth-distribution is. Imagine a bar graph showing who earns how much money. Include what you consider ideal and what you think it actually is. Then view this video to see how close your perceptions are to reality. You’ll probably be quite surprised. I was.
http://inequality.org/wealth-inequality-america
There’s more to Bob Marley than his music. Think about what he says in today’s Thoughtful Thursday quote:
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”
