Does everyone get their own pie?

[The2ndWheel]

Or does the world have to share from a single pie?

The American middle class had/does have it it pretty good. At the same time, there wasn't/isn't much of a middle class around the rest of the world. If a respectable middle class shows up in say India, or China, or whatever, can a middle class exist the way it did/does in America?

I am in no way saying that Indians, Chinese, or any other group of people shouldn't have that kind of luxury. All I'm asking is; how do you see the world? Can everyone be a king(or queen) in their own kingdom? Or does percentage have any say in the matter? Is the middle class idea itself based on percentage, in that everyone can't have everything, and there will be some on the bottom of the diamond shaped society we're trying to create? Or is it more of a straight vertical line society? Or pyramid? Will there always be people at the bottom no matter what? Or can poverty actually be abolished? If it can be, does percentage have a say anymore? If perecentage doesn't have a say, than shouldn't everyone get everything? Is that possible?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The problem is this

There is enough so that no one in the world has to starve, no one has to be without shelter or adequate clothing. The problem is the mind set that luxuries are "necessities", and the mindset that to remain happy/comfortable, we must continue to consume, consume, consume.

It wasn't always that way-planned obsolesence started ca 1920, and advertising creating "needs" for goods that really aren't necessities started a few years before that.

The values of saving, using things and mending them, that keeping your word and being honest was more valued than having a lot of money, somehow got lost sometime in the 20th century. If we reembraced these values, I do think that we could make it so everyone in the world could live on a more equal footing.

[CrispyQ]

2. It was also a time when leisure time was valued over material possessions.

One would work to obtain the things needed - food, shelter, some financial security. But once a certain level was reached, most people wanted time off to spend with their family & friends. To have leisure time indicated affluence. Now we sacrifice that leisure time, give it to the corporations in return for a pittance, so we can spend it on some cheap crap that we will forget by month's end. We've gone from being responsible citizens to mindless consumers. We value monetary wealth over people. Our culture is shallow & has no substance.

[sweetheart]

3. Everyone gets a cubic meter of radioactive waste

3 bullets, 2 post-it note pads and a pencil, the remaining posessions of the government
when the neocrims finally leave office.