Jason Bourne wrote:I some places yes and some no. The poor can become well off at least in the US and other free nations. I believe in the American Dream. I think I am living it. I was barely middle class growing up and started married life with little. I have been fortunate in my career. I know dozens of others who could say the same. I have seen it in my business.
I also see those who have being quite generous for the most part.
I think you are basically wrong on this point.
I see things differently, I guess. I'm working on a project to impact the rural counties in 12 states for the next couple of years. That's 340+ rural counties. In those 340+, over 30% of the population is classified as either poverty stricken or the working poor. In almost 1 in 8 of those counties, the poor make up over 40% of the population, some of them up to 50%. So the Bell curve doesn't work for them. The poor make up a significant enough number in the populations in those counties that they are keeping the mortality rates artificially high for all 12 states and no matter how much money I raise, no matter how many patient programs I throw at them, the mortality numbers remain high because there are so many poor among us. (and the risk factors for my particular concern are manifested more often, at higher rates, and with less success in irradicating them in the poor).
So... in my view, even in the US, the poor stay poor. The upper tier of the lower class may make it to the lowest rung of the middle class, there may be some shuffling in the middle class, but the poor... 40% of a significant number of my counties... remain poor. That kind of weight on a nation's economy cannot be overlooked. We have to do something about them, or what TD calls a "better world" will not only not be possible for them, but will likely not be possible for anyone but the very rich.
Someone once asked me what I would do, if I was a terrorist. How would I bring the US economy to its knees? It's not hard to figure out. There's more than one way to bring the US economy to its knees. We've managed to do that, with uncontrolled greed both at the corporate level and in our citizenry. Another way would be to take a significant state off the power grid. Without power (electrical, wind, coal, gas, etc), this country doesn't function. Where would a terrorist place a bomb that would take out a significant state? You guess. All it would take is one bomb, and it wouldn't really have to be a big bomb. Hit one place, one very small place, and California, with 1/8 of the GNP of the country, shuts down... goes off the grid. A lot of other places also go off the grid, but California is the biggest one. Take that big of a hit, and the economy hits the skids.
We live on the precipice of ruin all the time. We aren't careful with our resources, we waste a lot more than is necessary or prudent, we foul our own backyards and everyone else's too, and we don't invest in our future. We're so intent on living it up on borrowed money for today, we have brought nearly if not all of the entire planet to its knees with our greed.
The earth still looks the same, from space.
And this has what to do with what?
That's God's view.
