Every Honest, Hard-Working Person Deserves a Decent Life
“Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities." - Pope Francis
All honest, hardworking people, deserve a home, nutritious food, retirement income, and healthcare. No one should settle for less. Less should be a choice and not a mandate. All children should start life on a level playing field. All children should be able to go to Disneyworld!
Being a dishwasher, taxi driver, teacher, police officer, waste collector etc… should not mean that you are not as important as a CEO, professional athlete, or movie star or your job is less valuable than a CEO, professional athlete, or movie star.
Through God's Grace, a person is given the opportunity to be a CEO, professional athlete, or movie star. It should not be wasted enriching oneself at the expense of others and nature. This opportunity should be used to enhance everyone's life and nurture nature. A person should consider this an honor and only becomes a burden, when a person believes that they are better than everyone else and deserve more.
Replacing Competition with Collaboration as our foundation will give each of us an equitable stake in our economy and society. Everyone will earn a viable income to 'Live' instead of 'Exist'. We will view each other as peers and valuable contributors to our society. The playing field will be leveled. Hunger and homelessness will be just words.
Equitable Development is a system based on Collaboration.
To implement this system we need to:
Close the 'Income Gap'. As a result, the upper, middle, and lower income classes will be merge into the 'We' class. Closing the gap will put more money in more pockets. With everyone having more money to spend, demand for products and services will rise. As a result more jobs will be created which, in turn, will have a positive effect throughout the economy including taxes, public assistance, social security benefits, and the public debt.
Learn to 'Love Our Neighbors'. Instead of passing judgements on each other, we need to unconditionally accept and understand each other via empathy. We need to stop our reflexive thinking and turn the 'Me' society into the 'We' society. By collaborating, you will have billions of people assisting you.
Competition has been the foundation of our economy and society throughout history. The story always remains the same. A small group of people wanting control of everything. Whether it is a dictatorship, monarchy, communism, socialism, or capitalism, it is the same story. With communism, wealth and power was transferred to the state. Socialism was adopted to buy off people and Capitalism has expedited the inequality under the guise of freedom.
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world" - Schopenhauer
Capitalism is competition. Equitable Development is collaboration. Everyone wins with collaboration. Someone loses with competition. Nobody likes losing. Capitalism laced with the Trickle-Down Theory is a toxic brew. Capitalism and competition are not the answers and will never be. For proof, just look at our movies, TV shows, and songs for the past century. The themes have never changed. For example, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) depicts US politics of that period but this movie still rings true today. Immigration made a cameo appearance in "Harper" (1966), where one character was smuggling Mexicans into the US to work on farms. Over 70 years ago, "The Great Dictator" (1940) speech could have been given today. From 1979, Jimmy Carter's speech is a prophecy.
In fact, throughout our world history, our social and economic ills have not been cured. We have just been practicing different flavors of competition.
We need COLLABORATION not Competition.
We need a DECENT LIFE.(top)
Love Your Neighbor Policy
The United States is a 'religious' nation. In fact, most of the world pledges its faith to God. Why hasn't it changed our society or economic policy? Are we hypocrites? Or do we not know how?
In the US, we have many religions with different practices and beliefs. But there is one belief in common, Love of Your Neighbor. We need to place this belief as the cornerstone of our new economic and social policy.
We need to adhere to the: "Love Your Neighbor" Policy
This will be a shift in focus from oneself to serving others. This is a shift from organizations, associations, and companies serving their self-interests to collaborating to serve our country and world.
How do we 'Love Your Neighbor':
Everyone is born as a block of marble. It is our life experiences that sculpt us. We need to understand those events and feel for each other. We need to stop our reflexive thinking and labeling of people. If we walked in each others shoes, this would be a different world.
Loving your neighbor is to empathize.
Everyone is born with God-given talent. We are born with different talents because there are many roles. These roles are intertwined and are meant to interact with each other to improve our lives and nature. We are not here to enrich ourselves.
Loving your neighbor is to serve each other.
We are one. Our DNA is 99.9% identical and our family tree can be traced to one 'root'. We should not be pitting ourselves against each other, such as Management versus Staff, Whites versus Blacks versus Latinos, and Christians versus Jews versus Muslims.
Loving your neighbor is recognizing everyone as our peers and with love and respect.
There is one pie. So when bigger and more slices go to one individual or company, more have to struggle over the fewer and smaller slices. If the entertainment industry took a smaller slice, wouldn't tickets be cheaper? Even the sports industry has profit sharing to keep the small market teams afloat. As a result, it keeps the fans involved. Wouldn't products and services be cheaper and everyone's purchasing power be increased if all companies compressed their compensation?
Loving your neighbor is not putting them through financial hardship.
Variations on the 'Adam and Eve' story are told by various religions. Adam and Eve blamed the devil for making them eat the apple. Actually, Adam and Eve were responsible because they decided to eat the apple. The devil did not force it down their throats. We would have a better world today, if "Adam and Eve" took responsibility for their actions instead of blaming the devil.
Loving your neighbor is being accountable for your actions.
The human body contains elements from the universe which have been shaped by nature. Our existence depends on being in balance with the earth and universe. When a cup of hot coffee is left on a table, it cools to room temperature. It requires to be in tune with its surroundings and so must we.
Loving your neighbor is being in harmony with the world, universe, and its inhabitants.
God has entrusted us with a body and mind to maintain and improve. We need to make sure our bodies and minds are running optimally. As a result, we will be less of a burden to others and our economic and social systems. We will be more ably to serve others.
Loving your neighbor is improving/maintaining your body and mind.
As I created my child, I am part of my child. As God created us and all things, God is part of us and all things. We have to change our mindset from viewing others and nature as objects to seeing God in ourselves and all things. Hurting others and abusing nature is hurting and abusing yourself.
Loving your neighbor is loving yourself, nature, and God.