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Why is it socially acceptable to hoard wealth while so many go without basic needs? by K2toU |
postings
China Keitetsi: I think we're greedy. And I think we should begin to wish what I have, wish it for others. And it shouldn't be acceptable, and I think since we are in this world together, this is our model world. This is we human. We should [cherish] such a feelings that one has, or things that the world try to teach us or to accept and live with it. |
Constantin von Barloewen: It cannot be justified, neither socially nor morally, that over one billion people today still live on less than a dollar a day, that of the 500 million inhabitants of Latin America we have a high percentage of people that live under the subsistence level. It cannot be justified that Bolivia, a state with the greatest natural resources and gas resources in the world, with an indigenous population of 60 to 70% still has not integrated this indigenous population into the democratic process, which is only just starting now - slowly. That states such as Peru that have a high production of gold, a production of copper, cannot compete in the international market, because American or European affiliated groups reduce the value and don't reinvest in the affected states, but redirect investments into the states of the first world. It is only obvious, that now with president Morales in Bolivia, a new government tries for the first time to make use of the gas production in favor of their own population, but of course encounters massive resistance, e.g. by Petrobas, the huge Brazilian energy company and also by neighboring states that don't want to tolerate the raise of the gas prices. This inequality cannot be morally justified and the attempt of the world bank and the United Nations to revise the inequality of hunger is now already a mere utopia, because the industrial politics of the first world basically don't allow it in their wish to export the industrial production into the states of the third world. I have already talked about agricultural aids. |
Cornel West: The issue of levels of inequality that generate lifestyles of narcissism and hedonism and egoism is a complex one because, on the one hand, [inaudible] should agree that human beings often, though not always, tend to be indifferent to the suffering of others if those others’ voices are not heard. The cultures of consumption that have been reinforced by the capitalist mode of production for over 300 years make it permissible, make it even in some ways desirable to hoard tremendous levels of wealth, while other people are crying out for food, for water, for health care and for dignity. On the other hand, we’ve seen over the last 100 years or so significant democratic movements that have had enormous impact on reshaping the elite sensibilities, elite power, elite clout that we should not downplay insignificant social movements from below and struggle for individual collective rights of everyday people, so that more and more needs are satisfied. So, that degree of too many people from above has some legal and moral constraint, such that indifference to the plight of those below does not become the norm. As always it’s been a difficult struggle; it always will be. Yet there is hope. by Cornel West |
Currently video only.
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by Dedi Baron | 0 votes | 
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Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon. by Dedi Baron |
Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: Yes, those people who are practicing hoarding are those people who love their profit than their life. It become their culture to hoard wealth to maintain their economic status in the society, and the worst thing is they make everything being acceptable by everybody to justify their act of hoarding wealth. And, for me, this is -- it goes to the basic question that this people really love their profit than valuing life of other people who are hungry or who doesn’t have or who can’t eat three times a day in their homes. So, we wish to address this question to these people who have much enough to share their wealth and stop hoarding wealth but rather distribute their wealth to the needy. |
Dritëro Kasapi: I think you point, Mr. Kent, I think you point at an issue which I find very important and that’s solidarity. Realizing that we need to share our wealth in order to create a better balance in the world is very important. But to hoard wealth is a human instinct. I think it goes back to the caveman gathering food to go to so he’s sure that the winter will not be so hard, but a lot of Western countries have more wealth than they need. Unfortunately, even in the Western countries themselves, this wealth is not equally distributed because I think it’s a lack of solidarity. I don’t think we should go and moralize with people about people gathering wealth and say, "Wow you’re such a bad person. It’s not socially accepted for you to be rich." Because rich people also have a role to play. They produce money also and they produce wealth but what we really need to see is that wealth is distributed equally and that wealth is distributed in a way that creates better balance and that is an issue of solidarity, which is something maybe a level of consciousness that we as human beings as part of, as members of this global world, have to develop. |
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by Eliane Potiguara | 0 votes |
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Eliot Weinberger: This has been a perennial condition, after all the people in the castles weren’t thinking too much about the serfs outside picking the potatoes. In the 19th century city, you had people of enormous wealth who pushed up right against the people of incredible poverty and beggars and so forth, still exists of course now in the cities of the world today. But, the fact of asking the question of course once again is -- it’s a question that was not asked by the people in the castles and was not asked terribly often in the 19th century city. So, to ask the question once again shows a kind of shift of mentality. Obviously, it’s not socially acceptable. Obviously, one would prefer to live in an egalitarian world, which is a kind of Utopian dream that will not be realized, but one can move a little bit towards its realization. So, I think that asking the question is an important beginning on the road to an answer. |
Elisabet Sahtouris: Thank you Kent for asking the question of why it is socially acceptable to hoard wealth while so many people go without even their basic needs. And, I would have to say first of all that it’s only socially acceptable in places where wealthy people live and not even acceptable to all people in those places. I am, for instance, from the United States and everyone in the world saw when Katrina hit, the hurricane, that the United States has abysmal poverty along with great wealth. And among the abysmally poor, I don’t believe it is socially accepted for people to be hoarding wealth while they were going hungry and homeless. It’s not socially acceptable to hoard wealth in many parts of the world. So, it really does depend on whether you have the wealth to hoard or not, whether it’s a socially acceptable thing. Of course it is true that people have been taught that some people being wealthy, while others are poor is natural in the human species. People see the Darwinian Theory as a dog-eat-dog world, a survival of the most powerful and things like that. But actually Darwin only saw the competitive part of evolution, while we really have a tremendous amount of equity and cooperation in nature. Consider for instance your own body, where you have a 100 trillion cells working in complete harmony with each other, where there is no hoarding of wealth or in a rain forest where no species is in charge and many are feeding are each other and there is no hoarding of wealth. So, it isn't natural for it to happen and it shouldn’t be socially acceptable anywhere. |
Ervin Laszlo: It is not socially acceptable to hoard wealth, while others go without basic needs. It is actually accepted but that is fallacy due to ignorance and egotism. It should be overcome. by Ervin Laszlo |
Esther Mwaura-Muiru: I am not sure that it’s socially accepted to hoard wealth, while so many people go without basic needs. At least from the background they come from. It is not socially allowed. As African people, we believe in sharing. True African people do not see their people suffer. But I think it’s politically and economically acceptable to hoard wealth, while so may people go without basic needs. Again it relates to the first question that we asked. If we produced enough food to feed everyone in the world, why don’t we? It’s because, for you to have to accumulate to your own power to be able to be a dictator, you must have the resources with you. And today those resources are defined, in many ways, the access to material wealth. And, if you then allow and the people do have it, then you don’t have the power. So, allowing as many people to have the basic needs means that there are people who will lose their power, and this is not politically accepted. And that’s a problem. But, socially is unacceptable, and I am not sure that many societies that actually have societal values, that they allow this. I don’t believe they do allow this, but politically this has been allowed. The proponents of the economics of development, they have allowed it. And, I think it‘s what type of values, when we talk about development. What are the values that we are touching to that development, that’s a problem? Is development allowing somebody to go hungry while I amass? And I can throw much to the dustbin of what I don’t need, so that the next time they have so little, they will still to have come back to me. And that’s a problem. We are curtailing people to growth, to have their own livelihoods, to determine their destiny. Because if they determine, then we don’t have the power. And I think that’s political; it’s not social. |
Fernando Solanas: The so-called public opinion, the imaginary world collective is shaped by the mass media and the mass media are essentially subject to the dominant powers. The collective world conscience drifts more and more towards a huge dehumanisation and naturally those who accept these gigantic injustices, those who accept the absolutely abominable genocides like the recent attack and bombardment launched by Israel against Lebanon – with more than 200 bombardments a day – and against innocent and defenceless people; like the pillaging and massive bombardment against Iraq to rob its oil, which was based on slander and on a grand lie that only later was accepted to be a lie, and where the massacre of thousands of Iraqi people does not unsettle anyone. All this demonstrates a growing dehumanisation of the so-called western consciousness. We are living through a huge degradation of the humanistic conscience of western culture. Naturally, the [caparación] of individual wealth leaves millions of people condemned to hunger, to malnutrition, to living death. All this expresses the social genocide that can be summed up as the bellicose genocide and as the scourge that is produced by illnesses like AIDS, where medical products are still considered to be business rather than a basic supply for the benefit of humankind; all this expresses the same: it is a society designed for business. |
Fred Matser: Well, I understand the question comes from the United States, and indeed, I have been often in United States, it is acceptable and even it is favored to create wealth, and those people that collect wealth or are wealthy are often seen as icons. And so, they are used as role models and they are pushed through the media to be a role model. And alas, we have to say that in this respect, many of the mass media, the big channels, they have a lot of attention for the famous, the powerful, those people in the limousines, in the beautiful house, in the beautiful buildings, and that creates the picture that everybody should try to be wealthy. But, it doesn't take into account that beyond the borders of United States or even within the borders of United States, there is a lot of poverty. And I think the media could really be very, very helpful in showing that reality of their poverty and do an appeal on those that are wealthy to help their brothers and sisters in less privileged conditions. So, why it is socially acceptable, I don’t know. But, I do know that the media have a big role in making it sometimes socially acceptable. Of course, on the other hand, I forgot to say that, perhaps, we don't want to see poverty because it is perhaps too painful for us to realize that there is poverty. by Fred Matser |
Galsan Tschinag: How could it be any different? The stars are unequally distributed in the sky above, as the plants are unequally distributed on the ground underneath us. But this should not mean that the blind spots in the sky and the naked spots on the ground are worth less and display less. It is the same with individual people and whole peoples, because the actual value is invisible, is hidden in our minds and in our souls. |
Giora Feidman: Well, acceptance is a concern. I just yesterday arrived to Berlin from Boston. From Boston I passed three point of security in the airport. That is disgusting that we arrive as human being to this situation. And what looked to me that I am a person that almost two, three times, two times a week, I don’t know, I am in the airport, this became something normal, that is acceptances. This is a reason that I say this kind of acceptances cannot be; we must repair these. We must follow dignity. Dignity must guide us. Who created the situations must be treated not with so much in the meaning of punishment but must treated, this people who create all this situation to what we call a sincere and productive education. Everything that happen in this case and many case of daily life is a result of education. And if it’s bad, it’s not good for society. We didn’t got success in the systems of education. Please, acceptances not of this kind of situation. Give up self-interest little by little and you will see that you will receive so much and you will give so much. The desire to receive of the body of the human mean for the purpose to share. This is cultivation. For this we came to this physical life. |
Gladman Chibememe: Yeah. It is all a question of social values and it also depends on who is in control. So, if the one who is in control, the one who has the money, the one who can influence the media, the one who can influence the thinking of the people is a person who hoards the resources, then we appear to accept it. But, the reality is that it will be a concept based on a person or a group of people's ego, a self-centeredness, the need to progress as individuals and not as humanity in general. And, in this case it is a result in acceptance of hoarding of resources by some states and at the expense of a states that who also need -- that who would need the assistance -- that would need the resources to develop. Sometimes, these resources are taken from other countries and they are being hoarded or being stored in countries where they are even not used, but they are just stored for future use. And, yet, these -- an urgent need to use those resources urgently in some countries. Sometimes, such resources are also taken away from countries where they should be used instantly just to save the interest of selfish and gains by other countries for other states. So, in this case, we tend to approve a system just because it is a system that’s being implemented by a powerful state, a state that can control the media, a state that has the money, a state that has the computers and a state that has the technology. In this case, we tend to say maybe that’s the right way to do things and yet it is not the right way to do things. We need a situation in which all resources are open to everybody. |
Govindaswamy Hariramamurthi: It’s a question of greed, a question of fear. You always want to meet your own needs, you don’t look at somebody else need and it’s a question of ‘I want to exist’, I don’t care whether you exit or not. If you look at the entire process of trade, they control their stock, they store, they hoard. This economic wealth in the form of gold, in the form of cash surplus and it is released only to get richer. It is not possible to expect this process unless we find a mechanism where the basic needs could be addressed in a manner that we are able to create more wealth. It is often not the case. Most often we look at the agenda of economic surplus where I need to hoard more wealth then what I want you to have. |
Hans-Peter Dürr: We have a false perception of how we can enrich the mankind. It’s possible by making funds to enable innovation on a large scale. But the innovation, it turns out today, is not used to advance life standard of people, but on the contrary, to push away the people from the creation of value. We have no good idea anymore what a real creation of value is. Creation of value means that we produce things we don’t necessarily need. Economy in general is our enemy. It wants to earn money and to gather power, and it misses the fact, that a human, contrary to a machine, has the advantage of being creative, the advantage of being able to deal with mistakes, that he can solve problems where he doesn’t even know the basics, but develops them automatically out of himself. This creativity is not being developed, but just reduced to some few of us and then copied into thousands and millions to be thrown to the others as a consumption product. The main thing is that a person can realize the things he reflects upon in real life, in order to see how much his thinking correlates with the reality around him. And not with the pseudo-reality, which is being created by economy and technology. It is very much connected with the human development that a human shouldn’t be kept from taking part in this development process himself. In economy, we often talk about employment, we have to begin talking about people, that…[interrupted] |
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