It's Only a Problem if You Don't Have a Solution

There will always be changes and challenges in life -- because that is the nature of life.  If things never changed, then that isn't living -- so the challenge of life, is to be able to deal with those changes and challenges -- and not as the dying and disabled do, demand that things never change until they get their wishes fulfilled, soon enough.

So it is not as though the fortunate never have any challenges, but that they are good at dealing with them -- launching them onto higher and better.  That is why so many, squander good fortune no matter how much they have.  It is never enough -- because they will always find a way to undo their advantages.  And that is why it is important and necessary to be able to discriminate and distinguish the good from the bad, and act appropriately, rather than in declaring that there are no differences in everything.  Predictably, that is the surest path to disaster -- as places like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon report the follies of their ways daily.

What is the quality of life when the cost of living is astronomical while the possibilities of enjoying any fruits of their labors are zero?  The smart ones leave town as soon as they recognize the pattern -- as it will be more than a lifetime for the Detroits and Baltimores of the world to turn around -- and there is no sense in wasting a good life, even if that is where one is born in.  But that is the reason people move around to find their best environment and most favorable conditions for health, happiness and success.  

I know the media is full of stories telling us otherwise -- but it is up to each to determine the best for oneself -- and not merely serve the ends of the most exploitative defenders of the status quo.  People who move, generally do better than those who stay in one place all their lives.  They get to discover the many choices and options available -- and not merely settle for whatever situation they find themselves in -- as the best of all possible worlds, if not the only one.

On the other hand, it is quite possible for one to travel the world over -- and only live the same life and do the same things no matter how different the opportunities.  Such people will want to return "home" no matter how short their vacation from the only life they have known -- even planning for their next vacation while on their present one.

Obviously, such people are never truly "there" wherever they are -- but are always somewhere else.  Because of that "absence," they do not see the urgency and significance of each present moment -- when the world is encountered and resolved in the actuality.  They think all those problems and challenges will be resolved in some other time and place -- while we continue on doing all those things that are the problems.

In some places, that is even building massive transit systems to nowhere -- because they provide a few short-term high-paying construction jobs for the next administration to tear down.  That is because the funding is available and if they don't grab it, somebody else will.  So we need to look beyond the funding to see what really needs to be done -- and do that instead, even if nobody else pays us to do it.  We do it for ourselves -- as our greatest good.

Obtaining maximum funding, is not the same as solving a problem.  In fact, that often ensures that the problem is extended into perpetuity -- because the money is so good, it would be stupid not to take advantage of it.  But then those problems grow out of control and threatens to destroy all the good with it.  And so the solution lies not in the money derived from it, but other measures of success as the real tangible payoff.

How is that measured?  That is the quality of life -- apart from the cost of living.  An astute observer will even observe that they may be inversely related.  "The best things in life are free," and it is human ingenuity that makes it so.  That is the resolution of any problem -- rather than its continuance -- no matter how profitable.  Obviously, that is the post-money economy/society,  in which people directly produce what they value.  If that is health and prosperity, that means doing what needs to be done above all else -- and not waiting to be paid by others to achieve it for oneself, because that will never happen.

Some things can only be achieved for oneself, by oneself -- and not by doing all the wrong things, and hope to be bailed out by all the others.  That's not going to be a society (government) that works.  Instead, people will be rewarded for all the wrong things -- and the results are obvious.  Those cities become unlivable -- and the smart ones flee -- for the proverbial greener pastures.  Thus the question uppermost in many people's minds, is where are those places now?

Those who truly know, are not saying -- lest they also be ruined.  "Paradise" is where you don't want to be.  The mass media, as usual, will always be the last to know -- dependent as they are, on asking somebody else.  If they knew, they wouldn't be telling anyone else.  That's not what they get paid for.  Rather, somebody pays them to sell their "damaged goods."

Once we are clear on that, we can see through to the unsaid.  Therein lies the truth of the matter.  One has to do their own homework and research -- but has access to all the records anybody else does -- including the studies, and how they were conducted.  Many things will not add up and make any sense -- but some things will -- and make the world rational and whole again.  That is the process and evolution of thought, otherwise, the world seems to fall apart.  It requires a higher understanding than the conventional view can fathom.