Enough For All
There is a Ted Talk that was posted on the internet tonight. The speaker was sharing a concept that is not well known. People who are poor, make decisions that do not support themselves. They borrow more, save less, they smoke more, exercise less, drink more alcohol and eat less healthfully.
They did a test on folks that farm sugarcane. These farmers obviously became more affluent after the harvest. When they tested them, their I.Q. was fourteen points less before the harvest than after. Abundance not only changes how we feel, it changes how we comprehend.
There is an underlying assumption. There is something wrong with the poor that has them make these choices. However, research suggests that they aren’t poor because they behave differently. They behave differently because they are poor!
Poverty is not a lack of character. Poverty is a lack of cash. When you are underfunded in your life, it creates pressure. You may not have enough money to make wise choices. Do I pay the mortgage on time or do I eat less expensive, unhealthy food? Not having enough income creates pressure that allows us to make less than powerful decisions about our life.
We should stop sending teddy bears and shoes to folks we have never met. Instead we could create a basic income for all! If we spent one per cent of our G.D.P., we could lift all Americans above the poverty line. Now that’s a goal we can all get behind!
This basic income has been tried in different places with success. When people receive a basic income, they don’t quit their jobs. They relax, because their bills are paid on time. They become more creative, more inventive because they have the time to do so!
Where this has been done, children’s school performance has gone up, domestic violence has gone down. The hospitalization rate decreased eight per cent. Mental health incidents went down and people stayed on their jobs.
If we paid everyone a basic living income and eliminated poverty, we could solve many of the world’s problems like war and climate change and so much violence and crime. We saw a film this past June at our Illuminate Film Festival titled “Free Lunch Society. Find it online and see what we can all do to make this world a prosperous, safe, more loving planet for all! From my “enough for all” heart to yours, Thomas