Economic Uncertainty-Something's Out of Whack!

In business news you read such headlines as, "The trading losses suffered by JP Morgan have surged in recent days past the bank's initial $ 2 billion estimate by at least $ 1 billion...."

Billions lost, just like that. Heads roll, some people will be fired, others already have and the average person can't even get their head around how much a billion dollars is. A bad trade and a company loses billions and only a few people even understand what happened and those are the experts.

Then there's the Facebook billions. I'm not on Facebook and probably never will be. This blog is plenty of exposure for me. But in the latest news, the networking giant has an IPO value of $104.2 billion and make the offering worth $16.08 billion. Whatever that means.

Today I visited Kykuit, the magnificent hilltop estate, overlooking the Hudson River which was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family, beginning with John D. Rockefeller, the philanthropist and the richest man of his day. According to the tour guide, he was America's first billionaire. The Rockefellers are great philanthropists, billions made, billions given away. Kykuit is now an historic site. Very commendable. I look up to philanthropists, generosity is a blessed attribute.

And so I was thinking about all this, having been to Kykuit today. Billions of dollars buys lots of luxurious things such as expensive art, beautiful gardens and estates and that's fine. Capitalism is a great economic system, it helped my family climb the ladder of economic success in this country.

But there is too much income disparity in our country and it's growing wider everyday. Income inequality and joblessness causes hopelessness, anger and an increase in crime and domestic violence. That's the cold reality. You can't hide from hopelessness or from disenchanted and frustrated people. All people deserve to live with dignity and hope.

Three billion dollars in losses, (at least) that amount of money could have helped a lot of poor people and yet it's lost, lost in "financial outer space".........and no one really understands what happened, oh well a few people do.

NJA

Wired For Constant Distraction

It makes you wonder what the implications are for the Church of the future. A generation of children and young adults are growing up wired for distraction, according to a New York Times article titled, Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction by Matt Richtel. Young brains are especially vulnerable to becoming accustomed to and distracted by constant stimuli and multiple distractions. According to the article, "Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning." Young minds are not able to sustain attention, because children and teens are constantly switching tasks from video games to checking Facebook, watching music videos, using the internet and texting on their phones. "Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing," said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. The fear is that, "We're raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently."

It sounds bizarre to me (like the unfolding of a science-fiction scenario). There are obvious benefits to computers and cellphones, and I understand the value of using technology but it seems to me these trends among young people are worrisome for the future.

How can children be taught to appreciate the value of silence, prayer and rituals, if they need constant stimuli? Even more troublesome is what if their brains are wired to seek constant, changing stimuli and they are not able to stay focused. It seems even while students are doing homework at home, they are multi-tasking at the same time, going back and forth between their assignments and texting, computers and Facebook. Many students are having trouble completing reading assignments, because there are so many distractions, they can't even finish reading a book.

One of the photographs highlighted in the article, showed a young teen texting. Apparently she sends 27,000 texts a month. She talks to several people at the same time. I would imagine that's an extreme case, and I find it hard to believe. Does she ever look up from her phone? I wonder what her parents have to say about that. Do her parents pay her phone bill and are they aware of how much she texts? ( I guess now they are, after her photograph appeared in the Times.)

The world is changing rapidly because of technology. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to experience the world before computers changed the world. Obviously it will never be the same. I hope and pray the Church meets the challenges of the future and uses technology wisely and creatively.

NJA