Individually we all want enough money (and everyone has a different version what is enough) to live reasonably well and invest for the future. In reality we know there are people in poverty and as citizens of the world we both wish to understand and help limit the worst, knowing that there will be poor in the world. There are many books about the subject, many paths to travel and no perfect answer. In one book Out of Poverty by John Stackhouse published by Random House, Toronto, 2000 added to the subject. Mr. Stackhouse went to many of the poor areas of the world and offers his views of what it is like and possible solutions. There are many inequities and very hard ingrained “systems” such as India’s caste system in place. In India, it will take many generations before meaningful change happens, but things are starting.

In some of the poorer countries of the world, big institutions have a bias towards big projects and governments like big projects. An example is Our Lady of Peace Basilica in Yamossoukro, Cote D’Ivoire. This is a church the size of St. Peter’s in Vatican City located in a small town 200 miles from the largest center in a country which is 1/3 Christian. Why the church and the infrastructure that supports it was built there is always a problem with countries with a powerful leader. The church is wonderful, but little of the structure used the materials from the country which means most of the money went to the western countries that were funding the big loans or only a small fraction went to local people. This is a strange method to build a country.

All the above means there are many,many problems in the world and even closer to where you live.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, it is easier to pay attention to the companies in your country and try to make your community as good as possible. There are many inequities in place, some of them are almost ingrained in the system, but things can change. Perhaps you can use some of your dividends to make small changes and hope they get bigger.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.