Rich as Hell: Read It and Weep It Baby!

Rich as Hell :: tyeebooks.ca: “Fitzgerald was wrong: the rich are just like you and me. No matter how much money they have, they’d feel more secure with twice as much. They tend to spend more than they make. They have trouble teaching their kids the value of a dollar. They even need support from peer groups.”

(Via The Tyee.)

What I find funny is that the author approaches this class of rich people as a distinct nation:
“They aren’t really living with ordinary Americans, physically or culturally. But most are émigrés from America’s middle class, the wealthiest parvenus in history. They are both a recent phenomenon and a familiar one: Frank sees them as the “Third Wave” of dramatic wealth-building, after the Gilded Age (1865-1890) and the Roaring Twenties (1918-1929). In those eras, the top one percent of Americans held almost half the nation’s wealth.“

Here’s an example of the extravagance of the Upper Richistanis:
“Upper Richistanis, worth $100 million to $1 billion, total just a few thousand. These folks will pay $182,000 for a wristwatch. Billionaireville, by contrast, had 13 residents in 1985 and 400 in 2006. They can hire a consulting firm to tell them what time it is.“
Wow, talk about indulgence! I don’t think I’d ever want to pay $182,000 for a wrist watch.

Here’s another:
“Others gain status by building ever larger yachts: to be in the running these days, your boat needs to be over 500 feet long, cost over $200 million, and offer at least two helipads: one for your own helicopter, and the other for your guests’.”

So it seems the rich are the creme a la crop players of what I’d call the game of shadows in Plato’s allegory of the cave. (Jon would certainly get this reference – hint, hint)

Unfortunately, such extremes of wealth have a way of destroying everything around it. Here’s an example, indirect perhaps, from the article:
“”Despite their huge new fortunes, many of today’s millionaires — and even billionaires — are living beyond their means. The nation’s richest one per cent took on $383 billion in debt between 1995 and 2004, most of it in the form of mortgages and instalment debt. Their debt grew 235 per cent between 1989 and 2004, while their total wealth grew at half that rate.“”
Guess some don’t have the discipline to reign themselves in…
Like a bubble so bloated that it bursts…
I wonder if the adage: Absolute power corrupts absolutely comes into play at some point. (umm… or is that “Absolute greed”?)

Like sheep to the slaughter…
“Meanwhile, the very conspicuous consumption of the Richistanis is driving ordinary Americans to try to keep up. Maybe they can’t afford $2,100 wristwatches, but they have certainly learned to live beyond their means.“
You won’t catch me trying to run that treadmill.

The author also states along the previous point:
“But I wish he had devoted more time to studying the impact of the Richistanis on ordinary Americans. They’re not just working harder to keep up with the Gateses and Ellisons; most middle-class households are increasingly stressed and insecure, with dangerous consequences for their health and life expectancy. However well intentioned, Richistani philanthropy can’t compensate for what happens to ordinary folks because of the income gap.”
As Dennis Raphael and countless other social determinants of health researchers have been shouting into deaf ears for so long.

They say justice is blind. Nay, the unjustly rich are. (How do you beat human nature?)

WARNING: Being Forced/Born into Poverty is a Death Sentence (2008 & Beyond)

“If you’re born poor or forced into poverty, trust me gents, your health is going to suffer – hell you may even die horribly from it and perhaps pass it on to your kids like a contagious disease (the poverty and the bad health that is).“

Thanks go to Michael Shapcott of the Wellesley Institute here in Toronto for sounding the alarm (though alas, alarms have been going off for awhile). My thoughts are:

1. If we can’t even take care of ourselves we have no hope of rebuilding the environment. We’ll be too busy tearing each other apart.
2. For those inclined to blame the poor for their poor health, consider this: imagine there’s a kid being raised in a household where the parents are abusive because of poverty. Well you can imagine they beat that reality into their kids and there’s no escape. There’s an example of “nurture” perpetuating the cycle of poverty and ultimately of poor health.
3. In addition, people born into poverty are more likely to have genes turned on which lead to diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. If your granny smoked for example, certain genetic switches were flipped which were passed onto your parents and then to you. So you think someone who comes from a low income background can so easily escape their fate? (Why do you think your doctor’s ask you if your family has had a history of cancer, heart attacks, etc?)
4. Whose the most likely to end up in poverty? Visible minorities, minority groups, Natives, the works. Yes, you can include the immigrants too.

So what do we get out of this?
Fix the root cause – which ultimately stems from unequal human relationships, then spills into health and then leads to people so devastated that the environment just rots along with it.

Our current system, our old politics just ain’t going to cut it no more. Either there’s going to be revolution or humanity will simply destroy itself.

Figure 1. The cover of The Unequal City report put out by Toronto Public Health.

Resources
The Unequal City Report 2008 (yes, it’s for Toronto)
Closing the Gap in a Generation (2008, the global situation – it ain’t any prettier, this one’s by the semi-corrupt World Health Organization)
The Report of the State of Public Health in Canada 2008 (oh lovely, the federal government actually wrote something on it – it’s probably best that the Chief Public Health Officer wrote it and not Health Canada – oh my, did I just say that?? Health Canada may = FDA of the US [Food & Drug Administration] may = in the pocketbook of greedy big business [or maybe I'm too harsh?])

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The poorest men in Toronto are dying at a mortality rate that is a staggering 54% higher than the richest men in our city. Women are faring only slightly better – the difference in the mortality rate between poor women and rich women is 34%.

The mortality rate (a leading statistical indicator of premature death) is only one of more than two dozen health indicators set out in detail in a new report from Toronto Public Health called “The Unequal City: Income and Health Inequalities in Toronto, 2008” (October 22, 2008). The Toronto report comes on the heels of major research reports from the Canadian Public Health Officer and the World Health Organization that document the same trend on the national and the global scale.

Poverty is driving the health crisis set out in the Toronto report. Deep and persistent poverty in Canada’s richest city is leading directly to increased sickness and to early death. But it’s not just the poorest of the poor who are suffering (although they are paying the heaviest burden).

“The relationship between income and health in Toronto is not just about the extremes of wealth and poverty,” according to Toronto Public Health. “As the data in this report show, for most indicators there is a continuous gradient of health in relation to income – health status improves through each income increment. Toronto residents who live in high income areas are healthier than those living in middle income areas, and those who live in middle income areas are healthier than those living in low income areas. This means that health inequalities affect all Torontonians.”

“We cannot rate our collective health and well-being by looking only at those who are healthiest,” said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, in the introduction to his “Report on the State of Public Health in Canada” (June 18, 2008). “In short, health inequalities are fundamentally societal inequalities that we can overcome through public policy, and individual and collective action. Just as there is no sector of society that is untouched by health inequalities, there is no person or organization that cannot make a positive contribution to their resolution.”

“Social justice is a matter of life and death,” writes the World Health Organization’s Social Determinants of Health Commission in their report “Closing the Gap in a Generation” (August 28, 20008). “Inequities in health, avoidable health inequalities, arise because of circumstances in which people grow, life, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. The conditions in which people live and die are, in turn, shaped by political, social and economic forces.”

Inevitably, there may be some who will say that poorer people are the authors of their own misfortune, arguing that they suffer an overwhelming weight of poor health and premature death because they choose to live unhealthy lives. For those inclined to blame the poor for their poor health, consider this:

· there is a 40% increase in low-birth weight babies among the poorest Torontonians versus the richest. Toronto Public Health estimates that if poor and middle-income people enjoyed the same health as the richest people, then there would be about 1,300 fewer low-birth weight babies annually (that’s 1,300 newborns who would start their lives with an equal health advantage).

- Michael

Michael Shapcott

Director of Community Engagement

The Wellesley Institute

45 Charles Street East, Toronto, ON, Canada, M4Y 1S2

Telephone – 416-972-1010, x231

Facsimile – 416-921-7228

Mobile – 416-605-8316

www.wellesleyinstitute.com

Animated Greenwashing: Bring Spray-paint

MTV Switch explains Greenwashing « Greenwise TO: “The phenomenon is not only annoying, but also pernicious, as it puts the whole market for green products at risk and might damage the virtuous circle of companies whose customers choose their products over non-green products. Greenwash is the spanner in the works that sabotages the whole environmental movement within business.”

Adeline, a compassionate and experienced market researcher posted this very well animated vodpod video by MTV. Mike you’ll love the graphics no doubt about it (Mike is a film friend of mine who only goes for well animated pixels in his media).

(Via Greenwise TO.)

Climate Change with Jay Ingram

A Discussion on Climate Change, w. Jay Ingram and Andrew Weaver Sat Oct 25, 2008, Ottawa, ON

Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington Street)

Climate change is no longer a vague threat. Join the conversation on a path toward a sustainable future with two leading experts in the field. Jay Ingram, host of the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet and winner of the Canadian Science Writers Book Award, returns with The Daily Planet Book Of Cool Ideas, exploring what we can do to reverse global warming and what people are doing to create a sustainable future. Dr. Andrew Weaver, Canada Research Chair in Climate Modeling and Analysis at the University of Victoria and lead author of the Nobel Prize winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, makes his Festival debut with Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World.

$15 General / $10 Student or Senior / Free for Carleton students and Writers Festival Members

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When: Sat Oct 25, 2008
Where: Ottawa, ON Canada

For more information:

Contact Name: Dayanti Karunaratne
Website: http://www.writersfestival.org/events.html
Phone: 613-562-1243
E-mail: dayanti (at) writersfestival.org

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Please tell them you saw it at Planetfriendly.net.

Bottled Water: Buyer Beware

Bottled Water: Buyer Beware

It’s just what we’ve all suspected – pure, “straight from the mountains” bottled water is not so pure after all. Yesterday, EWG released an industry-rattling report that reveals the dirty truth about bottled water.

We tested 10 brands and found an alarming array of contaminants, including cancer-causing byproducts of chlorination, fertilizer residue, industrial solvents and even caffeine.

In light of these disturbing findings, here’s what you can do:

• Drink filtered tap water instead of bottled or unfiltered tap water.
• Mix infant formula with filtered, non-fluoridated water.
• Carry water in safe, reusable containers.
Read the full report or download our handy guide to safe drinking water for more tips.

Thanks, EWG for this information. High time we got the truth.

How Do You Keep Track of Your To-Do List?

“Feeling overwhelmed with your to do list? Don’t know what to do next? Is your brain scrambled? (like an egg)” Sounds like you need to get beyond the to do list stage (grins)

The article below is more of an introduction into the ways of “getting things done”. At some point in our busy modern lives we find that we’re hit with so much information that few can keep track of it in a notebook (at some point).

Of course, writing it down by hand is great for memory. I haven’t seen anything yet that indicates whether typing is quite the same unless you train yourself to do it (such as me perhaps). I’ve been noticing a major difference in the people I help with organization or productivity in terms of book/analog systems and digital systems. The majority use book systems while few use electronic systems (I use an electronic system – more later one day)…

Read the full post at Echo of a Candle Flame:
http://sunnylam.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/how-do-you-keep-track-of-your-to-do-list/

“It’s not often than my productivity side crosses into my activist blogging side. Maybe it should? What do you think?”

Mandolin in the White Prison

A lost mandolin plays among the white walls of a self imposed prison in the middle of the soul’s desert. The sands are white and only the chords of the universe remain. A stark dissonance in the desert, under the sun. The black cloth is ever spun into twilight.