Children of a lesser God - Fair

equity

/ˈɛkwɪti/

noun

1. the quality of being fair and impartial.

2. the value of the shares issued by a company.

We all talk about fairness and justice and righteousness. What we fail to factor in is the positions and perspectives that we take when we talk about them.

Currently, all around the world, there's a huge debate about equality - be it gender equality, racial equality, sexual equality, immigration equality or the much broader, human rights equality.

But what we don't realise, most of the time, is that there are two very different types of equalities - equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. And by definition, both of these are mutually exclusive. If you have equality of opportunity, you will not have equality of outcome. If you enforce equality of outcome, you won't have equality of opportunity.

This concept is not very hard to grasp.

Children of a lesser God - Broke

Over the course of this blog, the Children of a lesser God series has seen me rant about climate change, environmentalism and a common goal towards sustainability. This post however is a bit different from those - this deals with poverty, which can be a major contributor to climate change and environmental degradation. So addressing poverty would do a world of good - literally. No wonder humanity put ending poverty right at the top of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Poverty, however, is not cheap. On the contrary, poverty tends to be very expensive. As the saying goes, only the rich can afford to look poor. The poor however pay a heavy price for all their miseries. And I say that because being poor charges interest.

Not enough money in your bank account? The bank charges you an overdraft fee. Cannot afford a routine medical checkup? The hospital bills you for an expensive surgery. Cannot pay a parking fine? Your vehicle is impounded and they charge you extra. Cannot afford to buy a house? You spend the same amount on rent and maintenance (and at the end of it all you don’t even get to keep the house, while the owner sells it for a profit!) Cannot afford education? You don’t get a job. Cannot afford an expensive suit? All the well-paying jobs go to someone else.

Apart from all these disappointments, you also have the added pressure of time. That’s the worst part of being poor - you have to spend more time.

Cannot afford a taxi? It takes longer to reach using public transport. Cannot afford eating out? You spend hours buying groceries, cooking and washing. Cannot afford to buy what you like? You spend time looking for deals or wait for prices to fall.

Being poor drains away both your time and energy. Poverty is the worst form of violence that can be inflicted on a person - they become slaves to no owner. They become victims with no assailant. And with pandemics and recessions sending more and more people down the rabbit hole, ending poverty should no longer be looked upon as an act of charity or philanthropy - it is an act of justice.

Within our lifetimes I hope that the only thing humanity drives to extinction is poverty!

Children of a lesser God - III

So my earlier 'Children of a lesser God' rants were filled with depressing thoughts and pessimistic visions for the future. But they are based on existing paths rather than intended paths, and we can see changes and deviations from the existing path everywhere. We’re slowly moving away from fossil fuels, we’re incorporating green ratings and triple bottom-lines which consider society and the environment along with the economy.

We’re having informed discussions on what is good for the planet instead of what’s good for you or for me. We’re talking about globalization and universality, rather than being myopic about our views. We’re talking about electric cars and green buildings. At no other time, in the history of humanity, have we had so much interest in what is good for our planet, our home - our Earth!

In the war between the environment and the economy, small battles are being won all around the world but overall the people are still losing. I see the children of tomorrow having a very dark future - But I do trust the capability and capacity of the people of today to bring change. We're too lost in our greed and selfishness right now to have the foresight to envision the darkness that our present path is headed towards.

But we can change this present structure, we can change the way things work - we can re-constitute the entire foundation on which humanity is based. We can move away from a civilization built on pollution, fossil fuels, wastage, excess, gluttony, greed and selfishness towards a new civilization - A civilization built on the pillars of trust, unity, peace, clean energy, democracy and community.

We can create systems that nourish the planet rather than destroy it. We can create institutions which enrich human lives. We can create establishments which allow us to collaborate on issues and resolve them amicably without the necessity for war and strife.

We know that that is where the future lies. We know that we will reach it. We might not see it yet. We might not be able to clearly envision it yet. But we do realize that it is an eventuality. It is neither wishful thinking nor is it overconfidence - it is inevitability.

The most loyal and patriotic thing that we can do as earthlings is to care for our planet and lead a sustainable life. You might call my thoughts as idealistic but we need to realize that without idealism we can’t dream of a better future. Because what we aim for is what we achieve. 

And I, for one, aim for Utopia.