Thanks for a great class last Thursday, 10/13, and thanks to everyone who participated!! As always, I learned a lot from everyone, and I found the presentations and discussions to be very interesting.
Last week, our discussion led us to a protester who lived in a 1000 year old tree for two years in order to save it from being cut down by loggers.
Why did the logging company want to cut down such an old and irreplaceable tree?
Why do humans cut down entire forests and destroy the landscape in order to get oil and coal?
There is a high demand for quality wood and for energy sources like oil and coal, and the companies who supply these resources can make a lot of money!
So next week's topic is Money.
Money is not necessarily evil. We all need money! And we all want money!
Personally, I like making money: when I have money, I can buy plane tickets to America and Norway to visit my family and friends. I also need to make money: I have to buy food for myself and for my dogs, and I have to put gas in my car... !!
But it seems that the pursuit of money often leads humans to make decisions which harm our neighbors, our health, our earth, and our future.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has gone international. Ten thousand people marched in New York yesterday, and there were big protests in London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Hong Kong, and many other cities as well.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners says that the protesters are are "raising very basic questions about an economy that has become increasingly unfair, unstable, unsustainable, and unhappy for a growing number of people.
Protesters in the Occupy movement are "occupying" areas around and near financial institutions in big cities, in order to protest against economic inequality and corporate greed.
In the US, protesters are pointing out that "almost 40% of US wealth is held in the hands of 1% of the population, who are taxed more lightly than the majority of Americans."
"Protesters are complaining about tax breaks for oil companies, excessive lobbying in Washington, astronomical pay and bonuses for financiers, and the bailout of the banking sector."
(The above information is quoted from the Oct. 8, 2011 Guardian article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/occupy-america-protests-financial-crisis ). Read the article for an in depth introduction to this protest!
On 10/20 please feel free to speak about any aspect of money that interests you! I hope both sides will be represented... the positive and the negative!
Some questions to get you started thinking...
Is there a "financial crisis" going on right now, and if so, what has caused it?
Why has the Occupy Wall Street movement now spread to cities all over the world?
What do the "Occupy" protesters hope to accomplish? What are their methods?
What do you think of this statement?:
"There are those who say the system is broken. It's not! That's how it was built. It is there to make rich people richer."
- Trade union activist Bilbo Goransson
(The above quote is from this Oct. 16 Guardian article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/occupy-protests-europe-london-assange?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 )
Why do the 1% of people who have more wealth than the rest actually pay a lower percentage of taxes than the rest?
What has happened or is happening in countries such as Iceland, Ireland, and Greece?
What's a bank bail-out? Why do banks have to be bailed out, and how do the bail-outs of banks or big companies affect economies?
What are the tax laws in Taiwan?
What is the attitude towards paying taxes in Taiwan?
What is the state of the Taiwanese economy?
What is free market and how well is it working for us?
What countries seem to have an economic system that benefits their entire population?
What improvements could be made in the way our society currently manages money?!
I look forward to an exciting discussion about Money (and the Occupy protests!) on Thursday, 10/20!
See you then!
Sincerely, Abbie
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