TED Community » James Kelly

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• A reply on Conversation: Why do we NOT invest effectively in the poor and marginalized so they can participate in the global economy?

  Oct 31 2012: Above the poverty line or not, did your most unfortunate strawberry picker go to college with a debt of over 35k, 1k/month mortgage on a house that is not worth it's original cost? We've kept our "other" credit debt to a minimum (ie credit cards and loans) while helping with 50% of our son's college expenses out of pocket. Perhaps these phone factory workers who make $2 a day do not have the same opportunities? There will always be slightly sadder stories down this "whose got a worse off story" conga line. We have a household take home of 60k/yr with pension. Sure I'd love to go on an exotic whirlwind tour of Europe's landmarks. I'm happy with a once a year trip to places like the Grand Canyon and trips to see her parents in San Diego and my parents in Boston. Numbers do in fact lie out of context. You speak of reality but how much of reality does one need to see that the very people who educate and by all sense of the word "raise" the next generation of would be taxpayers and policy makers and thinkers and laborers and so on, do in fact need to be paid more. Instead you and others are more than willing to have the audacity to say that they are getting paid well enough and in fact "dramatically overpaid"! She brings work home so it's not just a 8 hour job and keep in touch with students over the years to see their progress. We are at weddings and college gradations over the summers of former students, so the 2 months she gets off is not like we are spending it on elaborate vacations or just laying around. One last thing - every year the budget for education spending have been cut - who do you suppose is paying for the classroom decorations including seasonal and permanent fixtures? Out of pocket every year my wife spends over $400 for decorations, $100 towards kids lunches who forgot their lunch money/lunch bag. $200 on gardening supplies until just 2 years ago when the school decided to help fund her garden project to name a few.

• A reply on Conversation: Should we limit our use of cellphones, internet and TV to get back our mental peace?

  Oct 5 2012: What sort of peace do you hope to find in death? I don't mean to have a mocking tone, but I for one do not like the idea of having "peace of mind" for eternity. I want to continue to explore and learn. With peace of mind will I have great knowledge and wisdom? Is it there will I find peace...knowing all that is to know?
  Some say we are to be reborn or reincarnated into another sentient being...others still say we are to be with the one who created us...once i was told we would just be collected back into the singular consciousness out in space or into nothingness waiting to collect the rest who are still on this website, at which point still nothing will happen for eternity.
  You are right that if it's not one thing it will be replaced or substituted for another. If it's not radio than it's TV. If not short morse coding than it's short messages on twitter...you get the point. I do believe we are evolving even if we don't want to believe it. We will adapt and continue our push for more knowledge - perhaps tap into the other 90% of our brain capacity and who knows perhaps surprise ourselves in being able to one day cope with having the vast knowledge we've attained AND be able to spend 5 minutes a day reflecting and gaining back our mental peace.
  Who is to say our mental limit has been reached with the dawn of computers and social media where it stands today. Scientific American published an article on the physical limitations of humans intelligence. I'll end my rambling tonight with this quote, "Humans, however, might still achieve higher intelligence collectively. And technology, from writing to the Internet, enables us to expand our mind outside the confines of our body." Essentially indicating the technologies of today is an extension of our brain! :)

• A comment on Conversation: Should we limit our use of cellphones, internet and TV to get back our mental peace?

  Oct 4 2012: If we are to evolve, would we need to evolve as quickly as our technologies? Or would we not have to evolve because our technologies do all the growth for us? I suppose this doesn't answer the above but to say that what we have now is not what we need than we should try to find what we will need soon. As Nadine Upton said earlier in this post, "There's no back, just forward". There is so much truth to that simple statement on many levels.