Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way… But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 1980


After discussing the song Ka-Ching, by Shania Twain I found that the juxtaposition of the three-legged dog and the woman in red was summed up quite well when Peterson stated that for he to increase his standard of living, someone else must lower theirs. This makes sense to me. If we consume quite a bit of resources, there aren't as many resources to go around. The world's not socialistic (not yet, or hopefully ever). The idea that many are made poor and hungry because of one's own abundance reminds me of the many commercials asking for donations for poor, hungry children in Africa and other such places. Peterson even goes so far as to hold the greed to buy more stuff accountable for the hunger and poverty in such places.