I don’t go to church, except for that rare occasion when I am invited, but mostly not even then. So when I want to get my church fix, I usually watch the pastor/preacher on TV. What I heard, in conjunction to a conversation I had recently, gave way to the thought that prompted this entry. The preacher was saying in his sermon, that we are subject to 2 types of sins; sins committed knowingly and/or actively (sins of commission), and those committed without intent, or through lack of action (sins of omission). My conversation involved the lack of personal accountability, or consideration, for things that we should be more consciously conservative of.
There are a lot of people out there, who I feel are people who consider themselves to be greater than financially challenged (whether they actually are or not is irrelevant for this topic), who seem to have a lack of consideration of the waste they incur, from electricity, to gas, to food, to list the top of my concerns. These are the people who either intentionally don’t care, or through lack of awareness, don’t turn lights off when not in use, have doors open when the heater/air conditioner is running, or have every electronic device they own in the "on" position. There are those who drive five minutes to get to the store, when it would only take fifteen to walk or bike there, for only a few items. There are those who would allow their car to idle for extended periods of time, and insist on driving everywhere, even when it would be acceptable or beneficial to carpool. There are those who would stock their refrigerator and shelves with food, only to have it go past the "use by" date, and then wind up throwing it out. These people are the ones who have gotten my attention for this post.
The reason I am harping about this, is because of our lack of consideration at how we are killing the little guy, not by strangling or shooting them in the head, but even worse, by slowly making their lives more difficult. The little guy will have a need for the basic necessities, just as everyone else does, but for the most part (and probably because they don’t consider themselves to be greater than financially challenged, or because they are more aware or considerate), they usually only get what they need, and use only what they can afford or have to have. I am sure that there are always exceptions to the rule, and there might be some people out there who have more than enough, but are still frugal with what they have (I applaud and appreciate you), but I feel that for the majority, they are wasteful. As it is with the law of capitalism, the greater the demand, the higher the cost (I feel that supply has very little in play as a factor these days). The more that is purchased, whether used or wasted, contributes to the cost of products/services. I think that prices are mostly going to be unfair, but the less that is actually wasted, the less the demand, the lower prices will be. When we waste electricity, and the demand causes a price increase, that increase is passed on not only to the wealthy, but also to the poor. When we waste food, that drives up prices for the poor. When we waste gas, that drives up prices for the poor.
I would urge those who can afford to be wasteful, not to be. I encourage those who are not aware to become so. I implore everyone, to keep in mind that we are all living in this world together, and only together can we make everything work. I think wealthy people have forgotten that it is the little man who does all the dirty work, and provides the largest portion of their profits. I think that they need to keep in mind that without the little guy, there are no rich people.
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