“No, Chet. If it makes for happier people, that is good. If it helps reduce the population, that is good. If it stops people who would not be loving parents from having children, that is positive. Having every child born being given every advantage possible is an even more important goal of mine than reducing population. We must have parents who will provide for the physical and mental needs of their offspring.”
“This is where you are getting into ethics and values. What other ideas do you have in these areas?”
“I’ve been studying the areas of ethics, morals and values for a long time but I don’t have the answers to these enduring questions of living intelligently. I have been invited to visit Kino by Professor Wang. I expect to learn more about how our value systems can be made more user friendly. Obviously today not everyone looks to religion for their values. Religions can give us a certainty that we all would like, but history is replete with religiously unethical behavior by the proponents of every belief. Catholics fought Protestants. Protestants fought each other. The Muslims fought them both and each other. History seems to be nothing more than religions and wars, and religions were the instigators in many of those wars.”
“What about economics? Do you propose a leveling of wealth?”
“No. I’m definitely not a Marxist—farthest thing from it! But through education and opportunity we can give everyone a shot at intellectual and economic wealth. Education, as I see it, is the process of teaching people to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education. I know you have been to Royce Hall at UCLA and seen Josiah Royce’s words that ‘Education is learning to use the tools that the race has found to be indispensable.’
“If we use the right tools economic wealth in the world can be increased. But there still isn’t enough to go around and give everyone the equivalent income of today’s average American or Brit. The other day I mentioned the wealth of the world when I left. It was about
$3500 per person. Now I’ve had a chance to update it to today in 2025. If we were to divide the total wealth of the world, estimated at 55 trillion dollars, by the approximate population of the world, somewhere around 9 billion people, if each person got an equal share it would amount to about $6,100. I would guess that several people with more than six thousand dollars would not be willing to let go of what they have that is in excess of $6,000. If you own a house worth $250,000 you will need to share it with about 30 other people. If your only possession is your $8,000 five year old Mercedes, you can keep it all for yourself, but you couldn’t keep your clothes or your furniture.
“While it doesn’t make any sense to play a communist Robin Hood, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, the world can do a few things to keep the money where it benefits the citizens. Just look at the uncommonly corrupt leaders in Africa who have feathered their economic nests with the wealth stolen from their nations’ foreign aid gifts by the ‘do good’ countries. If they don’t steal it outright, they own the companies that service the firms founded on foreign money—the cleaning services, the copy machine maintenance companies, the various suppliers—fear not, much of the financial fodder finds its way to the stallion in the chief’s stall.
“If we equalize incomes for all the people in the world the average person from Luxemburg would have to give up about $55,000 per year. The average Norwegian and American would have to give up about $35,000 a year. Would they stand still for losing their houses because they couldn’t pay the mortgages? Would they be willing to give up their sun and snow vacations? Their cars? On the other hand the people of Gaza, Somalia, Liberia and Ethiopia would increase their incomes by over 1000% if they were given $6,100 a year.
UNHAPPINESS
“No child deserves to be born to a life of drinking contaminated water, without sanitation, and with no educational opportunities. No child deserves to be born poor, to a birthright of AIDs, or should I say a ‘birth-wrong’? And no child should be imprisoned in a life without opportunity.
“Politicians make us happier by reducing our taxes while spending more. They campaign on the need for more money for education, then after the election it’s business as usual slopping the pork barrels.
“Religious leaders promise ‘pie in the sky bye and bye.’ They say God’s angry with us when things go wrong, then they praise God when blessings come—whether it is good weather or a victory in a war or on the football field.
“Whether it is retirement pay increases, state run medical programs or the promise of a heavenly salvation after our retirements end—count on our leaders to give us hope today.
But are they doing anything significant for our future? In the U.S. when gasoline prices go up a bit the president promises to look into alternate energy sources. Didn’t anyone think fifty years ago that there might not be an infinite supply of oil? In Europe they were paying two to three times the price in the U.S. and didn’t cry nearly as much! Of course driving alone in one’s Cadillac, when one might take rapid transit, is a basic right of Americans—possibly more prized than the right to free speech.
“Maybe God will provide. After all, gasoline is free once you pass through those Pearly Gates. Will God provide more forests to eat up the carbon dioxide and stop the global warming? Will God provide water to raise the rapidly falling water tables worldwide. What is God providing for the HIV orphans? Will God provide storms to sink the fishing vessels that are denuding our seas of fish? Or has God made us in His image and expects us to use our reasoning to do something about the mess that we have created for ourselves on our planet? Is He testing our intelligence and resolve to see if we can find a way out of our predicament? Is He seeing how far we can go in terms of omnipotence—actually using our power to do what is necessary?
“Are we dealing with the vengeful Being of the Old Testament times or with the forgiving Being of the more recent scriptures? Shall we be punished for what we have done to our present day Eden or are we being given the chance to make things right? Can we eliminate famine, disease, crime, wars and pollutions? I believe we can. But it will be nearly
impossible—and it seems to run counter to the human nature we have developed as we have stumbled selfishly through our history.”
POVERTY AND FAMINE
"And Gulliver Returns" Book 1 Reversing Overpopulation--The Planet's Doomsday Threat Page 6