jef91 said:
My fellow escapists...
I encountered a moral dilemma today and am interested in surveying you guys:
20% of the world's population has 80% of the wealth (this comes from Pareto's Principle)
I live in a very wealthy country, and as I consume my quality goods and services, I can never shake this guilt. I wonder: "How is this at all fair? My laptop costs more than a great number of people in the world earn in a year".
How does this make you feel?
P.S. I understand a lot of you will reply with things like "just stop caring, thats how I get through the day", or "perhaps you've never had a double quarter pounder while you're sobering up after a night out partying in the city". Do not waste your time, go to another thread.
I don't feel especially guilty since generally speaking the nations that have most of the wealth worked long and hard to get where they are, and obtained most of it competitively.
The issue of "standard of living" has been one for a very long time, and it is very true that the entire global population could not be supported at the level your typical American lives at. I've read some studies on what a truely "fair" distribution of wealth would look like (global communism) and while potentially appealing to the third world, I doubt most people in first world nations would appreciate it.
There are of course solutions, one of course is for there to be less people on the planet. I think overpopulation is one of the things at the root of almost all social problems.
Another is a "whatever it takes" approach to space travel and exploration, which can be used to obtain more resources and of course living space. This however mandates obtaining a world unity, and that isn't going to be entirely pleasant, even with the simple spread of ideas doing mot of the work, it's still going to involve a bit of conquest, and not to mention taking action to ensure ideas can be spread (I see current issues like national firewalls and the like as a global crisis on a number of differant levels).
At the end of the day, I really don't feel much guilt, especially when you consider the origins of the US and what happened over generations (even if some of it was quite ruthless) to get to this point. While I look towards solutions like space travel and the like, I freely admit I have no intention of giving up my standard of living (such as it is) for anyone else.
Each generation of our forefathers worked, lived, and died so their descendants could live better lives, and in our case it worked, which is why we are where we are. It didn't work out for everyone on the planet where the same thing was being attempted, but that's simply the way things are.
Also one of the reasons why I am very wary of nations like China is simply that they have so much of the world's population, and are striving for a higher standard of living themselves. With a higher chinese standard of living of course comes a massive need for resources, and those resources have to come from somewhere, meaning that simply by the numbers their success means a lower standard of living (eventually much, much lower) for nations like the US, Canada, and the more prosperous European nations. Something to keep in mind when looking at world politics and the like. It's no great moral battle between good and evil on this level but "us vs. them" and it's also why many people have said that an East Vs. West war is inevitable no matter what happens, and it's likely going to be a war based entirely off of economics, division of resources, and simple living space.
Also, I think a global disaster that kills off vast numbers of people internationally, whether it be a sickness, war, zombies, or whatever else, would be a good thing, providing people embrace Zero Population Growth, or at least action is taken to prevent a baby boom, afterwards. Less people means less ways those resources have to go, equating to higher standards of living, less need for conflict, and of course giving the planet a chance to replentish itself.
Well, enough rambling. It's no secret that the planet is a mess. That's one of the reasons why I look up into space as the solution, no matter what it takes to get there.
