hare Krishna! So the news is out. Hold your breath. The world has on date, 1 crore millionaires( in USD), which is 0.016% of the world's population. Within USA approx 0.09% are millionaires and this means 99.01% are not! India has 0.0001% that is one in 10,000.. India also has officially 37% of its people living a Below Poverty Line life. The good news according to the press is that the number is growing rapidly - at what cost to the rest of the world is anybody's guess. Last year was a bad year for the world. People lost jobs, savings, future and everything. But that was the best year for millionaires as their numbers grew very fast!
Just imagine! The world is reeling under huge man made problems. The list is very long. I will name just a few to give you a taste. Global warming, resource depletion, poverty, crime and violence, rapid rise in diseases coupled with medicare costs, starvation etc. All these problems have arisen as a result of mankind's relentless efforts to grow wealthy and opulent during the last one century or less. While problems have grown to gurgauntan proportions, the number of wealthy has hardly kept pace. The great American Dream of making a million dollars and staying in a posh owned house has turned into a nightmare in the last 2years. The bulk of the population struggles to keep itself afloat simply by pampering the small number of wealthy people. These wealthy people, unfortunately do not even know what true happiness means and in their mad search, call upon the world to destroy everything God given to feed their avarice. Thus , hardly 0.01% of the world's population has brought the whole world to the brink of complete destrction in just 30-40years. This is what we call as economic development.
It is a fact that USA with a total population of only 5% of the world accounts for 25% of the pollution(emissions). And out of this 5% also , hardly one-tenth are responsible for most of the wasteful consumption. This will hold true for poor countries also, where though population may be large, most of the harm is done by the small percentage of affluent people.
Material wealth is a poison and destroys mercilessly. Greed apart from destroying others, consumes the greedy themselves. It can be purified only by using in the service of the Supreme Person under the guidance of Pure Devotees, who are His representatives. Mahaprabhu called Kolavecha Sridhar as a cheater because he was concealing huge wealth , while he was living an apparently wretched life of poverty. What Mahprabhu meant was the wealth of Love of Krishna that constantly kept hm in ecstacy.
I wish no longer to earn the millions of tainted money that is earned and spent at the cost of the rest of society. I however long to be the recipient of the causeless mercy of vaishnavas who are the desire trees who can fulfill all desires of fallen conditioned souls
Hari Bol!
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