Re-Gain

Today's U.S. economic inequality threatens American's very freedom. More alarming our future economic growth is being undermined.  It is not just that a CEO may make 300 times more than what his workers make-there is a fundamental misbalance of haves with the have-nothings.   Edward Wolff at the New York University cites the following; the richest 1 percent Americans have 35 precent of the U.S. net worth.   The next 4 percent of our population have 28 percent of the wealth while the next 5 percent of us have 14 percent net worth. The next 12 percent of Americans have the next 10 percent net worth and after that the next 9 percent have the next 20 percent of the wealth. Finally, the last 3 percent of the U.S. citizens have the net worth of 20 percent of our population. The bottom 40 percent of U.S. citizens have nothing or even a negative net worth.  They owe more money than they own.  Recently the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development documents that the ric

Why is conserving so needed? Simply with billions more people now on this earth requires us to be more efficient with our resources for the future. Conservation matters because investing in the best use of our land, air and water is in our best interest. There are millions of ingenious ways we can better this place. We can bike or walk instead of drive. We can shut off lights, computers and tvs not in use reducing our electricity requirements. Water from our roofs can be captured in rain barrels for watering our plants. Promoting sustainable economic growth by transforming waste is an investment in our happiness. What we do affects our planet, and also impacts our very spirit. It is all about ecology and economy. "Eco" comes from the Greek meaning house and it is time to do some serious cleaning both inside and out. A new prosperous frontier helping this blue/green planet  if we become thrifty.  I have been fortunate to be a participant in several conservation tipping p

I recently heard a friend describe her life as being consumed by her gardening for a farmer's market.  The next day I heard this term as a book title. William T. Cavanaugh’s book, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Eerdmans, 2008), explores our free market economy.  He critically examines world hunger, globalization, economic abundance, and consumerism as being flawed.  Cavanaugh’s  suggests that our “free-market” results in just the opposite; it imprisons us. He believes the concept of the “autonomous individual” as being controlled by a dominant few lacking in any good purposeful end.  He sees our “free-market” economy creating endless wants and desires.  Consumerism creates a never ending downward cycle, lacking any good social ends, short changing our very humanity. Cavanaugh contends that the so-called “free-market” fosters economic enslavement by corporations and Madison Avenue. This powerful and select group stimulates consumer addiction in many ways.  Als