We’re having a lively debate here at the Avocado Jungle on the limits, if any, to profit. Is it okay to profit off of the poor and sick? Is there a need to regulate such ideas? Are there things we should just do for one another so that everyone benefits equally?
The concept of profit in a capitalist society is essentially devoid of ethical considerations. There is one goal: increase net profit. Profit sucks out the soul of humanity: any help needed comes with a price tag; all price tags come with an included and invisible mark up (pure-hearted charity excluded).
Welcome to the first AVJ Writers’ Debate! We’ll post an assertion to be argued for or against, and ask all of our writers to come to the table for a good honest debate. Comments are now open to all readers. ASSERTION: The government should help to ensure that no business profits excessively off the sick, disabled, or poor.
In the public eye, divorce has become a speed bump. It’s a tedious process that is more of a hassle than an emotional ordeal. Time used to be that divorces were a rarity, deemed a sort of failure on both persons’ parts; now it is an ugly sometimes-necessity for people who know better than to try to work it out. What this teaches children, and subconsciously ingrains into the minds of young adults everywhere, is that there is an easy alternative to the strife of marriage: get out.
Just a quick note on something special that’s happening these next few months on the Avocado Jungle. We have the pleasure and honor of having a very talented photographer as our first ever Artist In Residence. Angela Richelle is a photographer, working professional and mother living in Southern California. We’ll have more soon, perhaps even an interview of a decent length. For now I’d like to encourage everyone to see her first work as our Artist In Residence, a chills-inducing shot of her own divorce papers–and a very candid and moving bit of writing to go with it. The photo is entitled, “Dissolution of Marriage.”
We can choose who and what enters our psyche. Technology has made us extremely efficient. But at what expense? If we decide that efficiency is one of the most important values, perhaps it is possible when choosing to perk an ear to what we care to hear and nothing else, we miss out on ideas and deepening of relationships, which best occur happenstance. Podcast available.
I have to say, I hate that “we are in the middle of war-time” for a couple reasons. First of all, I’m not the biggest fan of war or of military forces. Secondly, I think ex-President Bush’s proclaimed reasons for starting the war were not well thought through and have only been exacerbated over the years by his haughty, self-serving, frat boy attitude. Thirdly, “war-time” has become this relatively removed experience for all but the growing number of people with loved ones returning severely injured or not at all.
Profit seems to be to music as The Force is to Jedi knights. The right amount of money used in the right way can be the light from heaven for a band or musician. However, it can also be a true poison to honest art.
Acrylic on wood from painter Joe Vaux, entitled “Flood.”
Stay tuned for more performances, more interviews, and more episodes of and Boris! Also coming soon… iTunes podcasts of all our features, from blogs to webcasts to music and more.
In the coming months we’ll be building a team of people to present the events of the world in a way we think is different from how most people are doing it. We hope to:
Prioritize stories that are deeply significant and not just sensational;
Focus on root causes and possible solutions, not just symptoms and a chronology of events;
Provide a rich context of history and culture to help place events into the bigger picture.
Connect these stories to America, and to individuals living in America.
Emphasize the actions that are being taken, and when appropriate, the actions you can take to improve your life and the world around you.
We’re setting our sights high and hope you’ll like it.
This week in the Jungle
we are searching for the truth about profit. Is it okay to profit off of the poor and the sick? What are the moral and ethical considerations of profit and the more practical long term realities? Last week: divorce. Next week: friendship.
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