The list of misplaced priorities on the previous pages represent just a few of many the trivial things that people commonly prioritize above very important things. The typical lifestyle in wealthy nations is so throughly self-indulgent that a complete list would be impossible to compile. The priorities I have chosen are ones that can objectively be seen to be frivolous. Clearly no one needs to buy a pet, cosmetics, jewelery, soft drinks, coffee or recorded music. Nor do people need to spend time watching television. However, some self-indulgence is more subtle and less easy to attach exact costs to. For example, everyone needs some shelter to live in but no one needs a spacious home. Everyone needs transportation of some sort but no one needs an expensive car and many people need no car at all. Everyone needs clothing but no one needs expensive clothes or the latest fashions. Everyone needs food but no one needs anything from food other than their basic nutritional requirements. However, most food is purchased based on taste preference. In the same way, going to a restaurant is usually done for enjoyment and not as the least expensive way to meet the requirement for food. These types of self-indulgence were not included in the previous pages because it would be impossible to take the total amount spent in each of these areas and break it into the necessary part and the unnecessary part. However, these types of excesses probably represent the majority of the money allocated to misplaced priorities.
The list of ignored needs is also far from complete. However, there are some others that deserve mentioning. Basic public health (including immunization, school health, nutrition, vector control, monitoring and surveillance and micronutrient supplementation) has been estimated to cost 14 billion USD per year to provide for those who do not yet have it [8]. Essential clinical services (including care of the sick child, tuberculosis treatment and treatment of infection and minor trauma) has been estimated to cost 26-31 billion USD per year to provide for those who do not yet have it [8].
The combination of meeting the above needs and the needs mentioned on the previous pages would almost certainly save millions of lives every year and alleviate some of the unimaginable suffering that hundreds of millions of people currently face. Accurately estimating the total cost of meeting the needs already mentioned is obviously a difficult task and the numbers given are likely only order of magnitude estimates. However it is clear from my research that an enormous amount of suffering and death could be prevented with the reallocation of a small fraction of the world's spending on unnecessary things. In the same way, if just a small fraction of the time people waste was reallocated to caring for others, many people would be helped who are currently ignored.
I was unable to find estimates for the cost of meeting some needs, presumably due in part to the difficulty in estimating them. However, other needs that are substantial and unmet for many people include adequate and safe housing, sufficient clothing and various types of education. Any list of serious world needs would be woefully inadequate without mentioning the greatest need of all humans: to repent of their sins and submit to the lordship of Jesus. Clearly the amount of time and money allocated by Christians to declaring God's call to repentance and obedience is not only far below what is needed but also far below what we are capable of. Most have even prioritized their own comfort and pleasure above giving copies of the Bible to the millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe who long for their own copies of scripture.
I do not expect that all of the people who read this
will change their lives to give up their unneeded comforts and dedicate
their lives to serving others. We, by our very nature, are sinful and
selfish and care so little for others that the thought of giving up
comfort and pleasure for the sake of others is a completely foreign
concept to us. However, I expect that those who claim to follow Jesus
will take seriously the call to self-sacrifice and love for others that
was a core component of both the message and example of Jesus. This
call to love others as we love ourselves has been so ignored in large
parts of the church that the attendees of many churches live lives that
are essentially indistinguishable from those in the societies in which
they live, at least in terms of the level of self-indulgence that they
display. A more through analysis of the call of Jesus to love our
neighbors as we love ourselves is available at
http://joel.mawhorter.org/loveyourneighbor.html.
Due to the
unfortunate reality that most people will not choose to reorient their
priorities to serve others at their own expense, the demands placed on
those of us who wish to follow Jesus are that much greater.
Some may object to the comparisons I have made on the grounds that they do give a significant amount of their time and money to helping others and therefore why should they not be able to enjoy a "few simple pleasures". At first glance this thinking may seem compelling. However, regardless of what you have done with the rest of your resources, every choice to allocate money to a specific purpose indicates that you consider the thing you have chosen to be more important than all other possible uses of that money. If that were not so, then why would you make that specific choice? Clearly it is not rational to intentionally make a choice that you have concluded is not the best choice. Obviously you might have made a less than ideal choice without clearly considering the alternatives but that is not a valid justification for making such a choice. The same principle applies to our time and any other limited resource that we must allocate.
I will end with some sobering words that Jesus spoke on this topic:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the king will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.'
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they too will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?' Then he will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.' And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Matthew
25:31-46, New English Translation
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