Class 7 - It's Good to Be the King...(it's just better to live in the 21st century)

In class 7, we discussed how in 15 years we will be twice as rich, according to Rizzo's calculations. Things will either cost less or we will have more money. We then talked about how material goods are trifling as it is the stream of values (sentimental, time spent with others, etc...) that is more important.

Enough with discussion! Time for power point!!!

We discussed how the difference in wealth increases between the richest and the poorest countries. 200 years ago the difference was so small it went unnoticeable. However, today the difference has grown to reveal very noticeable living conditions in the richest and poorest countries. The rich get richer at the poor's expense.

However, we have seen that the world is improving. In 1970, 27% of the world lived a dollar a day. Today it is less than 1 %. The extremely poor has been reduced by 80%. This is mainly due to increased health. So the rich are getting richer, but the poor are doing pretty well. We saw how the income inequality has shifted dramatically to the right over the last 50 years and there are fewer poor people in the world today.

We then discussed ancient times and feudal societies. We saw very few differences between ancient Egyptians and monarchies of the 16th century. They both did and built great things, but in a feudal society, the servants get paid for the work.

We discussed the problems with poop and how cars are a lot better than horses because there is no poop problem. There is also more land to farm because the horses don't have to graze. And finally we don't die from living in a society full of poop.

We then realized we are as rich as King Louis XIV. We have more servants than he does (they just work for the rest of the world too). We have technologies and medicines that are amazing. We can impress King Louis just as much as Bill Gates can. We are richer than the King because we are not in peril. So many great monarchs and thinkers of the olden days died of some trivial disease. We are richer in health (Wow I sound like my mother).