Thank you, Elirien for your level headed responce and expanding upon the thoughts you had layed out earlier. I'm glad you reminded me that you're from Turkey, so I can take into acount some of the cultural differences that that presents. For one thing you may not be accustomed to seeing extreme poverty (sick, disoriented homeless people) standing about 20 feet away from extreme wealth (a guy smoking a cigar, sitting in a hummer, talking on his iphone, who lives in a mantion in Beverly Hills) the way we see it here in the states, and as I particularly see it here in Los Angeles. I tell you if you understood how truly wealthy this country is, none of the poverty that exist ANYWHERE in the world would make any sense to you. And I'm looking at it everyday, and I'm shocked by it more and more so. Like Jacque says in his passage about incentive:
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Some may question that if the basic necessities are accessible to all people, what will motivate them? This is tantamount to saying that children reared in affluent environments, in which their parents provide all the necessary food, clothing, shelter, nutrition, and extensive education, will demonstrate a lack of incentive or initiative. There is no evidence to support this fallacious assumption. There is overwhelming evidence to support the facts that malnutrition, lack of employment, low wages, poor health, lack of direction, lack of education, homelessness, little or no reinforcement for one's efforts, poor role models, poverty, and a bleak prospect for the future do create monumental individual and social problems, and significantly reduce an individual’s drive to achieve.
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The rich folks aren't being told that they need to have their wealth removed in order to motivate them to make meaningful contributions to society. So why are the poor being told that if they had free access to vital necessities (and I consider education, healthcare and love necessities) that they wouldn't have any incentive to achieve their goals? This is BS in a way that gives BS a bad name.
Thank you, Peace for sharing your experience with the VP. You pretty much confirmed my suspicion of Jacque that he's a wise old sage who's willing to share his vision with anyone who asks. After viewing an old
appearance he had on Larry King, I commented to a friend how amazing it is that this guy has kept at it for so many decades and is only now being taken seriously. Quite honestly, if I were in his position I wouldn't have made it this far. I simply wouldn't have survived for this long, so I'm glad he's had the fortitude to keep dreaming.
Great Love,
John