By Randy Schutt, in "Inciting Democracy":

"There is no reasonable justification for one person to make as much money in a few days as another earns in a lifetime. No matter how smart, beautiful, refined, charismatic, brave, clever, educated, experienced, or hard working, no human being deserves to receive five thousand times as much money as another. But billionaires in our society today typically realize more return on their investments in just two days than someone paid the minimum wage earns in fifty years of hard work.

Our economic system rewards luck, inheritance, chicanery, and raw power. It scarcely rewards effort and usually discounts virtue. In defending this absurd system, apologists can ultimately cite only its supremacy and invincibility: it exists and so far, no one has been able to change it, therefore it must be worthy. Skewed political and social relations rest on similarly specious logic and equally lame excuses. They too are indefensible in a civilized society."

In this 'civilized society'... how can we explain the "first world" in other terms than those that deem it "more developed?"

What if we measured "development" by the nature of familial closeness, of community bondedness, of character and humility, of wit and generosity, of dedication and perseverance... where would the first world fall?

What's OUR 'reasonable justification' for economic inequality?

How has patriarchy, capitalism, and racism shaped what we know as the global economy? How responsible are we for making the change? How is the global landscape changing... and what do you think can be done?

Good intentions,

(Though I am a World of Good employee, these opinions are my own.)