On Wealth and Poverty: Thought-Provoking Reflections

Nhi takes in a Baha'i Club presentation and reflects on wealth and poverty. -gw

The Baha'i Club lecture was very interesting. The Baha'i faith. which I've heard of but never really knew what it is really, is very interesting... a very universal kind of belief that mankind is one and that we should promote understanding and peace and the eradication of absolute poverty and the diminishment of other extreme forms of poverty and extreme accumulation of wealth... I'm glad I went to it, I learned something new, and that's always good.

"Extremes of Wealth & Poverty, Wildfire Dance Theatre "

Uploaded on February 3, 2007 by Dr Phil on flickr

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Anyways, some interesting, thought-provoking quotes that the lecturer mentioned:

- "He is truly wealthy who has acquired that which he desires"

- "He is truly poor who has everything and still desires more"

It was also interesting how the lecturer analogized the economic law of diminishing returns to the diminishing satisfaction gained from continuous wealth accumulation, and how he analogized the Columbus-age debate over whether the earth is flat or round to the Baha'i belief that mankind exists as one "race" versus separate "races" by saying that, no matter how much we debate over some things, they are the way they are and have always been and we cannot change the fact that mankind is one, just as we cannot change the fact that the earth is round. However, one must be cautious in making analogies, I think. Although it's a good way to support one's argument and persuade people, you can't really analogize any situation to another based on the same type of thinking. Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the lecture and feel that I've gained some new insights from it =)

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{Reposted with permission}