Celebration of simplicity - killjoy or real joy
|Do we ask questions about the Economic System we are part of? |
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|What questions should I be asking? |
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|Do we know what the consequences of our choices as consumers are for other people? |
|If we don't question the system, are we implicitly condoning it? |
|What is the real cost of cheap food, cheap clothes and cheap flights? |
|Whether we realise it or not, most of us here are amongst the richest people on the|[pic] |
|planet. (If you’re still at University then the facts say that you are going to be | |
|rich). Its only because we compare ourselves with our peers and those ahead of us | |
|in our careers that we don't think of ourselves as rich. | |
|A quarter of the world's population, 1.5 billion people, have an income of less | |
|than $1000 a year. 3 billion more have an income of less than $10000. | |
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|If you're a teacher just out of Stran, your starting salary puts you in the top 0.5% of earners world wide. If you're starting as a lawyer, you'll be in |
|the top 0.1% (and off the scale within ten years). If you're a social science graduate working in McDonald's, you'll still be in the top 1% of world wide |
|earners. |
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|Whether we think of ourselves as rich, the facts say that we are. We have economic power, which gives us choices, privileges, and with privileges come |
|responsibilities. The poor have no choices; they can’t change the way things are. |
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|What kind of an economic system are we part of? |
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|The top three billionaires in the world hold assets worth more than the combined GNP of all 48 least developed countries, with their population of 600 |
|million. |
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|5% of the wealth of the richest 225 people in the world would provide food, shelter, basic health care and education for everyone in the world who lacks |
|access to these basic needs. |
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|29% of the world's energy is consumed by just one country, the same country which also produces 24% of the world's pollution. |
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|Its appallingly unfair. Its unjust. And its unsustainable. Who is my neighbour? - the person living two generations after ours, who has to scratch a |
|living from a ravaged planet. |
|Bush's Speech. Just wait til they run out of water. (You heard it here first). |
|So what are the consequences for other people of the economic benefits we enjoy? |
|cheap flights: |[pic] |
|fossil fuel footprint, pollution, war (oil). | |
|Global warming - its not jet engine science. | |
|At the same time we're pumping all this CO2 into the atmosphere, we're chopping down the rain forests to fuel the | |
|myth of continually increasing prosperity. Will we run out of breathable air before we run out of oil? | |
|cheap clothes: slave/child labour |& animal welfare |
|[pic] |[pic] |
|cheap food: |[pic] |
|environmental damage (e.g. loss of indigenous ways of life, loss of habitats and species, | |
|deforestation leading to flooding) | |
|waste/packaging | |
|obesity (30% of children in the UK are overweight, the figure for those who are clinically obese | |
|is approaching 10%) | |
|chemical fertilisers, GM crops | |
|loss of community, loss of relationship, loss of connectedness | |
|use of artificial flavourings, colours, etc - carcinogenic additives | |
|did God create us to be consumers? Is that how we reflect His Glory? | |
|Consequences for people around us. Richard Wilkinson |Trust and social capital all related to income inequality. [pic] |
| | |
|[pic] |Suicide rates, homicide rates (and, not surprisingly, death rates) are also all |
| |related to income inequality. |
|Other consequences for people in the developing world |Poverty. Disease. Exploitation. (all preventable). Trade Laws perpetuating the debt |
| |cycle. 20 U.S delegates vs 5 for the whole of Africa - who's going to win that vote? |
|What can we do about it? Acknowledge that the economic system stinks |
|In the light of these, will u b a Garden Centre Unionist? How much of my lifestyle could be shared by | |
|the majority of people on the planet? |[pic] |
|Isn’t creating your own heaven here on earth always exclusive? | |
|St Francis esteemed Sister Poverty as his wife, "the fairest bride in all the world". I wouldn't be | |
|practising what I preach if I stood up here and called you to renounce material things altogether, the| |
|way that saints through the ages have done; but I can make an appeal for you to choose a simpler | |
|lifestyle: | |
|Don't aspire to buying an SUV as soon as you can afford one; there are other options: | |
|Just because you can afford to fly half way round the world twice a year to go somewhere windswept and| |
|interesting for your holidays doesn't mean that you have to: check out Ballywalter for your next | |
|holiday, and be thankful. | |
|Ethical investment and consumption. | |
|Trade Justice. Make Poverty History. | |
|Fair Trade. Right here tonight. Organic produce. Food Coop | |
|How do we avoid having to do two weeks of research every time we |[pic] |
|want to go shopping? | |
|My friend's radical choice: | |
|SPEND LESS. GIVE MORE | |
|(GAYE practical) | |
|Why does he do that? |
|in his opinion, the prosperity of the "developed" countries was in part created - and is in part maintained - by injustice. In fact, by exploitation, |
|slavery, war. Therefore part of our wealth does not rightly belong to us - giving is not a question of charity or compassion, it is simply justice |
|there is a principle in life called solidarity - it means choosing to stand alongside someone, at a cost to yourself, because you do not want them to face|
|what confronts them alone. |
|people are in dire need. We all have the capacity to answer some of that need. |
|Remember the statistics at the beginning? Its not just the super-rich that can make a real difference. Think about this when you join the 40% tax bracket:|
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|The top three billionaires in the world hold assets worth more than the combined GNP of all 48 least developed countries, with their population of 600 |
|million. The second-home owners of the developed world hold assets worth more than the combined GNP of the 27 least developed countries. |
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|5% of the wealth of the richest 225 people in the world would provide food, shelter, basic health care and education for everyone in the world who lacks |
|access to these basic needs. So would 5% of the wealth spent on weddings by the population of the developed world in six months. |
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|29% of the world's energy is consumed by just one country, the same country which also produces 24% of the world's pollution. China and India come next; |
|and fourth place in the energy consumption/pollution generation stakes is the aviation fuel burned every year on long haul flights. |
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|So what hope is there? |
|The God we worship is a God of abundance; and also a God who has given us wonderful gifts for creativity and innovation. We can get ourselves and the |
|planet out of the mess it is in; but we need a change of mind and a change of heart. |
|if prosperity is the blessing of God, what did the poor do to get |[pic] |
|cursed? | |
|live simply, that others might simply live | |
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