“The popular contention that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is based on fact.”

So states the United Nations International Forum for Social Development.

We’re at a crossroads.

One sign points straight ahead to a future that has increasing resource disparity between the richest and the poorest countries and the richest and the poorest people.

The other sign points in a completely different direction. It points towards a future where resources, a critical component of social justice, are available to all.

In the first direction, the direction we are headed, wealth-based inequalities are growing.

These inequalities include access to capital, income, education, housing, and health care.

Wealthy corporations strip poor countries of their resources while leaving behind pollution and poverty… privatizing profits while socializing costs. Workers in the lower economic strata of some developed countries increasingly need two or more jobs simply to subsist.

In the other direction, we find another future altogether.

One that seems like an impossible dream, but that is just as real a possibility as the future in which we’re headed.

Rich countries and corporations pay a fair price for the goods, resources, and labor of poorer countries leaving behind a healthy environment and a robust economy.

In this future, not only the wealthy enjoy education, healthcare, safety, and housing. Rather, the goal of this future society is to ensure that all people have access to these necessities and the income to pay for it.

Finally, in this direction we look at our contribution to global conditions and explore how we personally can contribute to resource equity.

Taking this direction requires a whole new way of thinking that does not blame individuals or groups for the current inequities in the world. That’s a lot to ask for from a society in which people use blame as their first line of defense against taking responsibility for their contribution to social injustice and resource inequity.

Exploring the cultural conventions, the super-myths that inform our thinking provides opportunities to reimagine ways to effectively bridge differences, and advocate for healing, justice and restitution.

What we’ll explore together:

• Super myths, that developed, established and institutionalized resource inequity and economic exploitation.
• Thinking patterns that reinforce and perpetuate fallible systems of thought.
• Ways to transform these thought patterns to re-balance our human social systems and promote distributive justice.