What's Wrong With Us?

I read the other day that now only 12 people control half of the world's wealth.

I also read that the U.S. Department of Energy now concludes that an unintentional lab leak resulted in the Covid pandemic, albeit with a "low level of confidence", whatever that means.

Other recent news includes a $400,000 missile being used to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S.

What is wrong with us?

I've long struggled to understand the hoarding of wealth. Look, I'm all for having financial security. It certainly seems like a nice position to be in to have no mortgage, all your basic expenses paid for and beyond, and the freedom to travel or purchase just about anything you want. 

And I suppose the ship has sailed on spending money to find better ways to kill each other. That's a sickness that seems unlikely to fade away anytime soon.

But when does enough become enough?  

When I walk along the California coast, in all its incredible beauty, you know two things that I always see? Homeless people and empty houses. 

There are these absolutely incredible homes. Beautiful. Well-maintained. Solid. They stand empty most of the time. They are the second and third homes of people who live somewhere else, or increasingly they are owned as investment properties by corporations.

Yards away is a run-down RV that hasn't moved in weeks, or a tent, or a tarp fashioned into a tent, or simply just a human being occupying a sleeping bag.

Mahatma Gandhi said, "the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members." 

We certainly seem to be failing in this regard.