I believe in the prosperity message and believe we live in a universe that is abundant and full of overflow. The figures that were presented to me were startling to say the least and I had to summon up all my mental strength in order to not go on a guilt trip. These figures are from 1998, however I am sure they are now probably worse, for this sake of this article let's assume they are current.
Half the world lives on less than $2 per day! The World Bank poverty line is $1 per day. In the USA this figure is $11, not sure why that is though. According to figures in 1998 it would take $6 billion to provide a basic education for all. It would cost $9 billion to provide water and sanitation for all and a further $13 billion to provide health and nutrition for all. This totals $28 billion.
This sounds like an amount of money that could never be raised by the other half of the world that does not live on or beneath the poverty line. However further investigation revealed some starting figure.
In 1998 people spent
- $ 8 Billion on cosmetics in the USA
- $11 Billion on ice cream in Europe
- $17 billion on pet foods in the USA & Europe
- $50 billion on cigarettes in Europe
- $780 billion on weapons around the world
This totals $866 billion
$866 billion spent on what really amounts to rubbish and $28 billion to ensure that everyone in the world is able to live a far better life on this planet. Now I am not going to get scriptural about this although that would make my task much easier.
The thing is that there are many people, wealthy that punt giving money away to the poor. Two names that come to mind are Jim Rohn and Suze Orman. Jim is a world renowned business coach and he says you should give 10% of your income away to church or charity. Suze Orman says if your hands are closed whilst holding money tightly then you cannot receive money.
Looking at the above figures is there balance? No! Imagine if everyone that earned or received any kind of money gave 10% to a centralized fund to be put to use by addressing firstly the shortage above and then secondly towards empowering those who cannot find work. Imagine what a better place the world would become? There is no reason why everyone cannot donate 10% of their income. We do and we have been blessed beyond measure for this. By giving this money you will receive much more and you will change lives in a very big way. I believe that abundance is all around us, there is no lack or poverty, just greed.
Next time you go buy some cigarettes, make up or ice cream have a good long hard think about this blog.
