"My Very Smart Kids"

Preemtptive Karma:

Yesterday my children and I were discussing how much better they have it than most everyone else in the world when one of my sons commented to me, "Wouldn't it be great if everyone in the world lived as well as we do?" I said, "Well, actually, that would be impossible." He asked, "Why?" I said, "Because if everyone in the world lived as well as we do, it would take at least four Planet Earth's to produce enough resources for all of us." His jaw dropped and his eyes got big, and then he asked a very astute question – one that so few Republicans seem to have ever considered. "Why, then, do people tell us we should be trying to help the rest of the world live like we do?"

Thus begins an intellectual and moral struggle for my children, one in which they will eventually have to decide whether to live a more frugal, earth-friendly lifestyle, or go to war and continue to take advantage of the world's poor in order to maintain the creature comforts and consumerism they have come to expect. While I believe they will eventually make the right choice, I must say I don't have nearly as much faith in the American public as a whole.