"A World We Dare to Imagine" - Part 1

In her book The Blue Sweater, Ms. Novogratz, takes on many contemporary and viral topics, ranging from inequality to lack of education. In one of the excerpt from her book, she explains how "all mean are created equal to every human being on the planet." Ms. Novogratz believes that it is our responsibility as humans to challenge world problems and look further than our own neighborhood or city. I completely agree with her point that people need to grow closer to each other rather than separating themselves by gentrifying neighborhoods and building private residential areas. It sure makes sense, when a country's government first thinks of its own problems and the security of its own citizens. However, the notion of citizenship came about not that long ago, but it has already put a lot of meaning whether a person is a citizen of one or another country. From the fundamental perspective, people are equal, no matter their ethnicity and definitely their citizenship status. I agree with Ms. Novogratz that people need to look at the larger picture of where humanity is and not limit it with properties like citizenship.

For the second topic, my wish for the world is that more people become financially literate. I remember listening to a podcast another day highlighting the number of former NBA or NFL players that burn through their fortunes a few years after the end of their careers. It is important to understand that most of those players enter professional careers not even finishing colleges or universities. Now imagine a group of young athletes, who acquire a big amount of wealth in a very short period of time. This brings me to my main point - many of Americans are financially illiterate, which means they cannot fully use power financial tools, such as loans or credit cards. Besides Americans, there many people around the world, especially in developing countries, who are financially illiterate, as shown in Novorgratz's book The Blue Sweater. 

Comments

  1. Ankit ShahApril 22, 2018 at 3:58 PM

    Hey Bulat, great post! I found it very interesting that we talked about almost the same exact things! To me, financial literacy has always been a feasible and implementable method of pulling people out of poverty. What strategies do you believe can be used on less developed nations rather than developed ones? In terms of everyone being equal, as bad as it sounds, to remove not just physical barriers but also mental barriers amongst societies proves to be the hardest

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  2. Campbell MattixApril 22, 2018 at 6:19 PM

    Hello Bulat! It was great reading your post. I agree with Ankit that your ideas are very similar. I think it would be helpful to work together but maybe focus on different groups. I think your discussion of people who suddenly acquire a large amount of wealth is very interesting. You could possibly differentiate yourself by focusing on teaching people like that how to be financially literate as well as how to help others in the process. Your first step could be reviewing the book Born on Third Base!

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  3. Ellie ForcheApril 22, 2018 at 8:05 PM

    I really like your point about people becoming more financially literate. I find it so interesting that children today are not educated in terms of managing their finances and creating budgets. it seems to me that the school system is much more concerned with subjects that aren’t so applicable in the real world.

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  4. UnknownApril 22, 2018 at 8:34 PM

    Hey Bulat, I think that you hit the nail on the head when it comes to how demographics are divided by geography. However, it begs the question: why are people this way, and how do we change it? I think that people have a certain degree of selfishness driven by their own mortality. The sheer transient nature of life causes people to act greedy. People only look out for themselves and their immediate environment.

    In my own post, I mention a potential solution for your hopes of making others more financially literate: global internet. Online learning resources could put more power in the hands of those who don't have the means to educate themselves financially. You raise a good point about athletes, though: how do we make people want to actually use these resources as well? That's a much larger question!

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