Of all your non-family friends, which one have you had the longest? Are you still in touch with friends from high school? Elementary school? Earlier?
Share why if you wish.
Month: September 2025
Why Do We Allow Poverty To Exist?
Poverty is a known, defined problem that we could end if only we had the will to do so. So why doesn’t that happen?
Think of a disease, like smallpox. At one point in time, we didn’t know much about smallpox. Then we learned what it was, how it was transmitted, and how it could be treated. Then it was a difficult, but straightforward, process to eliminate smallpox.
Like smallpox, we know what poverty is. We can easily separate out the people who live under the poverty line from those living above it.
We also know what causes poverty. And finally, we know how to “treat” it. It regularly happens that an individual or a family is raised out of poverty. We know what to do to erase it from someone’s life.
So why, then, haven’t we, as a society, taken the final step and eliminated it, just as we eliminated smallpox? We could rid the world — or at least our country — of food insecurity, unstable housing, lack of health care, etc.
Of course, eliminating something is not easy. We can treat other diseases, but not eliminate them.
For example, cases of measles are on the rise in some communities, even with an effective, cheap, commonly-available treatment. While the numbers are down significantly from its peak, we’ve never been able to eliminate measles.
And, of course, poverty and disease differ in many ways. The analogy is not exact, and it may be that the differences are telling.
But the point is that we know there are things that can be done to reduce poverty, like pay higher wages or increase affordable housing. However, we don’t do them. Why not?
Related questions: Can we end poverty? What is the purpose of money? What are our responsibilities to others?
Cake Or Ice Cream?
To celebrate your birthday, or just to have a sweet treat after a meal, do you prefer to have cake or ice cream?
Share why if you wish.
What Is Your Favorite Commercial?
Most commercials are annoying. Some however, are clever, funny, relatable, or heartwarming. Do you have a favorite?
Share why if you wish.
How Do You Deal With Constant Change?
Everything seems to happen rapidly in today’s world — and it is only speeding up. How can we deal with that constant change?
The pace that things are changing now is impressive. Just a hundred years ago, things were drastically different. Automotive flight was in its infancy. Radio and newspaper were the primary forms of communication — there was no TV, no Internet.
Even 50 years ago would seem like a time capsule to today’s youth. Color television was just a few years old. Computers were massive machines that took up entire rooms.
In addition to significant technological change, there have been large social changes as well. Examples include women’s liberation, the rise of social media, and legalization of gay marriage.
Of course, there were changes, often momentous ones, in decades and centuries past. However, the speed at which these revolutions in science, technology, and culture take place is getting faster and faster. For instance, the telephone took more than a century from invention to widespread use. Television took decades, and then the smartphone just a few years.
People, though, remain largely the same. Life expectancy has increased, yes, and we know more about our health and the way our bodies work. But our brains are the same ones that evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
With that in mind, it is remarkable that humans have managed to adapt as well as we have over the last century or two. However, there are signs that even our flexible brains are having difficulty taking in our information-heavy, rapidly-evolving existence.
How do you deal with the speed of today’s society? Does the 24-hour news cycle impact you negatively? Do you chase the latest smartphone model, and if so, what happens when you get it? How often do you feel overwhelmed?
Related questions: What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Are we too busy? How do you deal with major life changes? What technology most impacts your life?