There’s nothing wrong with making money in itself, but there is in making millions and millions of dollars primarily for yourself, just to waste most of it on excessive living that STILL won’t make you truly happy. People try to replace that necessarily outgoing concern, that truest of human love, with things and events. They get married on a whim, with the insurance of divorce. They buy more cars than they really need. They live in big houses they’ll just sell in about a year. They party hard to drown out the sound of their seemingly insatiable emptiness. But only one thing can fill that craving, and that’s loving your neighbor as yourself in a world that largely doesn’t. It’s doing the best YOU can contribute to the world despite what everybody else does. The substance they lack is a completed character, a human heart that fights the resistance of selfish human nature with unnatural outgoing concern for others (with proper care for themselves as well).

Think about others, and you will never be bored. Do onto others what good you can, and you’ll find that you’re helping yourself along the process of helping others. Again, I am not advocating selling everything you have and give all to the poor. You can if you so desire, but I do not recommend that course of action, and it is not necessary putting yourself in poverty–you’ll then be adding to the strain, because now YOU’LL be relying on someone for help. Rather than going to the extremes–to EITHER extreme, of being excessively rich or extremely poor–be modest. Appreciate the value of enough and consider an excellent character the greatest possession you can truly own. Go ahead and gain success, but share your plenty (with wisdom, of course). Riches are only good for sharing with those who have none. And it’s not just Africa to consider–consider the world at a whole. There’s even people in America who, though not to the extent of some in places like Africa, starve here. Did you know that one in four children go to bed hungry in this country, with nearly 12 million children living well below the poverty line? You may not be financially able to assist someone in Africa, but what about your own backyard? Helping anyone in need reduces the strain on the help altogether. That’s one less person starving. That’s one more life changed. That’s another able hand to help another in need. Helping grows help.

I hope before people argue with me (because disagreement on a perspective is almost unavoidable in public discussions), that you’ll consider these things. Never mind who said them–just consider what value they are, as objectively-placed points. We have the power to thrive this planet and to destroy it, and one form of destruction from from ignorance and lack of consideration. you don’t have to mention this topic at dinner time every night, but raise some awareness of the issue. Also, I speak to the whole world, to those able to help our fellow human beings. Citizens of any country are more powerful that their leaders, as we outnumber politicians by the millions. We mustn’t be afraid of hindrance due to politicians–WE are the power of politicians. WE are the nations. WE are the world. Let’s change this world. Let’s change…us.

Also, to you who claim, “Stop having kids.” For your information,

a) rape is one of the highest crimes in many African nations.
b) some people have children when times were better, only to, say, meet bad years in crops.
c) unlike wealthy American and British families, many families in poor countries depend on families to help feed the family. Go to India, where beggars will have kids to help their begging career, because jobs are not everywhere.
d) starvation is a slow event, but not life long. Those who are starving today were not starving five years ago. Again, conditions might have been different during earlier times when children were born.
e) telling people to stop having sex because of their level of poverty will be about as effective as telling people who have recreational sex to stop having sex–last time I checked, human nature of people giving in to sexual desire. If anything, the more dire the conditions it is against having sex, seems like the more people have sex. General human nature isn’t going to change because of a harsh reality–ask the smoker with a hole in his throat. Human nature is the very cause of most human suffering to begin with and hasn’t changed for all of recorded human recorded.
e) governments in Africa are heavily corrupt and most countries that suffer with starvation are countries that were let down by their authorities, who got into office either by brute force or corrupting their way into office. Africa is one of the richest continents in natural resources, but has some of the poorest people in the world? How? Corruption. Even some charities have a hard time getting to people with aid because of corruption.
e) you’re arguing against a point that is besides the main issue. Even if they were having kids up the ying-yang in their impoverished condition, that still doesn’t justify excessive living of our relatively-wealthy nations, most of it being what we really can’t afford anyways. In our society, we spend more than we actually own, and for the average American and Brit, all that spending is on ourselves.

Only a spoiled American or Brit will say “we can save everybody.” Maybe not, and no one said that was the objective, but you save who you can. You must take care of yourself, and there’s nothing wrong with having things for yourself, but the message of this article is addressing those living in ridiculous excess (a VAIN excess, because NONE of them will actually STAY married) that could easily be going towards helping their fellow human being. Moderation is the key to successful living. You can have a beautiful engagement ring without it costing millions. Funny how some people missed the main issue trying to cover for their own intrinsic selfishness.

Wow, who let the Ayn Randroid onto SI?