Have you noticed?

[Lilith7]

I think you missed the sarcasm from Zurdo there, Lilith7.

The name of the game is greed, greed, greed, more, better, faster, cheaper.

Trying to live graciously is a thing of the past unless you have a fortune stashed away these days.

No, I read the sarcasm, just replied to it.  Neo Liberalism has much to answer for, not least those particular views, that 'the poor are lazy' or somehow 'less worthy' than themselves.
It is A grade bullshit, nothing less.

While there will always be a few feckless people most of us want a reasonable standard of life for ourselves & everyone else.

While it still rankles that Roger Douglas was given a knighthood - on the other hand, perhaps we all owe him & his fellow greed-crazed followers a great debt for the extremely vivid lesson on what happens when greed is allowed free rein.

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Oh .I dunno about that either. I live graciously, and for the most part contentedly, on the smell of an oily rag, and not just as a aged superannuitant either. 

But I have the benefit and privilege of an education - another thing many people choose not to seek out and acquire. More and more I am convinced the key to a half decent life is education.

The other thing we often miss is the need for every thinking person to take a role in civic progress, to vote responsibly, to support policies we believe in, to not be persuaded down strange alleyways by personality and promises that simply do not stack up. And not just to fall back on a diet of blaming someone else for everything that isn't right.

We are lucky to live in this progressive nation with its public health, peace and security, education, and rational politics. Sure it could be improved, but that is really up to us. It is also up to us to protect it, plenty of examples elsewhere as to how easily it can be lost.

Definitely agree - imagine, if every person around the world had access to free education throughout their entire lives, what a difference that might make. It could help to stave off dementia, for starters & for those on their own, widen their circle of both friends & ideas.

 It might even, eventually mean an end to poverty, an explosion of the arts & that most feared of all things, ( at least by arms manufacturers) an end to wars.