Self Portrait

POVERTY?

Is poverty really a problem to be solved?

What is poverty?

A big general term applied to society.
We mean there are poor people living in our community.
They are so poor they cannot afford what we think of as the basics of living.

Food
Shelter
Clothing
Education
Medical care
Automobiles
Computers
Telephones
Cellphones
High speed internet
Big weddings and funerals and parties
Big vacations and cruises
Big screen high definition televisions

Anyway, they are starving and homeless and can't afford medicine. Sounds bad to me.

But I don't think those are the people we think of when we think of the "problem of poverty."

Poverty is seen in relative terms.

If someone else has a lot more, then you are relatively poor. I think this is what they mean when they talk about the "problem of poverty."

To me this is a personal problem.
It is a problem of envy.

Let us forget about poverty. Let us remove the word from our vacabulary.
What we really want to do is help people with desperate needs. Let us help those people and stop worrying about the people who are resentful of their neighbors who have more.

Poverty?
There is no poverty.

Everything we need is available right here and right now. It is all the gift of the infinite spirit. Open your heart and receive with praise and thanks.

REFLECTION ON A WALL

Report From The Front

We attended a small Easter party yesterday. There were some happy children there.
One young couple with two small children had just moved into a newly bought three bedroom house in Temecula, California. The parents were quite young, only 22 years old.
Looks to me like the ecomony is working for them very well.

1960 Zuma Beach Malibu California

STATISTICS=NONSENSE

Here are a couple of numbers I dug out of the news. Who knows if they are true or what they are really talking about.

1. number of people collecting unemplyoment benefits as of January 24, 2009 is 4.75 million.

2. number of people unemployed as of March 3, 2009 is 13 million.

My question: Who are the 8.25 million unemployed not collecting benefits?
Do any of these numbers make any sense?

REPORT FROM THE FRONT

The economy war continues. The land is filled with despair.

But in my little world.....
It is April 3 and already all the rent is in! Everyone is paying their rent on time! And nobody has given notice that they are moving!

Sounds good to me.

I hope others will prosper. I believe prosperity results from all the classic virtues. Give good service and charge a reasonable price. Be kind. Be generous. Have faith.

Mark To Market Madness

Today the accounting cartel finally made a substantive change in the mark to market rule that they put in place back in 2007. The change they made then had unintended consequences indeed.
The financial system was being destroyed by that rule change. All the other suspects were not really the cause. There have always been bubbles and bad loans. This time really was different, becaused of the mark to market rule.

Hard to believe but true.

Try this analogy.
The world economy is like an organism. The rules are like the DNA. The rulemakers are like mad scientists tinkering with things that should be left to GOD.
One small change in an organism's DNA can lead to hundreds of consequences.
Usually a mutation, any mutation, actually makes the organism less fit.
Many mutations are deadly.

The rule change they put in was of the deadly kind. It would have eventually killed the entire economy. It is fortunate that the rule has been changed again. Although the best would be to just go right back to the old rule. We must hope that the new rule today will work for our good.

It is hard for people to believe or understand that a simple rule change could kill an economy. But this is one experiment that has cost trillions of dollars.
Now we can look forward to a recovery.