TED Talk: How the World Lives According to Income

I am not trying to share this TED Talk to shame you. I am not sharing this video to make you feel worse. What I am trying to do is help you gain perspective. With perspective, we can look at our problems from different angles or gain more gratitude and appreciation for what we do have.

I remember sharing this video with the inmates in prison. I remember them (rightfully) complaining about being an inmate within the system. They would ventilate about repetitive and tasteless meals. They'd complain about not getting enough clothes to wear or get mad at the corrections officers for not giving them toothpaste (actually, tooth powder). All true, all very impoverished.

But - I would try and give them perspective. "You are in prison and this is a horrible place to be. And you are in prison in the United States. What do you think it would be like elsewhere? Maybe some places are better, and a lot of places are a lot worse. You *get* clothing, you *get* meals, some of you *get* your own cell."

I would play this video to give perspective on how "normal" folks in other countries live, not even those that are incarcerated.

Take a few minutes and expand your idea of what living conditions are like for people all over the world. Again, not to shame or ignite guilt, but perspective for gratitude and awareness of the imbalances of wealth around the world.