DISQUS

I made mulberry muffins and a mulberry pie last week- this year's mulberries (around me) seem so much better than last year's! And the black raspberry harvest is in full force right now- I'm freezing them all until I figure out what to do with them!

One way to find "good" and "bad" charities is Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/). I found this database to be fascinating- it lets you know how the donations are used, what the top execs at the charities get paid, and how much of my donation is actually used for the stated purpose, rather than admin costs or more fundraising. I found a few surprises, and I'm determined to check out Charity Navigator now before I make a commitment to support an organization.

The “it’s my money and I want it NOW!” commercial annoys me to no end. I think you hit the nail on the head- it's #4 that moves us to break rules 1-3. Consumer debt is a choice, not an inevitability.

I had a teacher once who would always say "'Fair' is just another four-letter F-word"... but he was talking about grading things, so I didn't like him very much.

I've thought about the same issues you bring up here, and came to the conclusion, we don't really want society to be 'fair', in this sense. If it were so, people would be stuck in a cycle of poverty, the rich would get richer, the poor get poorer, and those people that need our help the most would get marginalized and devalued for the sake of 'fairness'.

Good post.