The video below graphically demonstrates the growing inequality in the United States.  While Canada does not have this degree of income inequality, it is moving in that direction.  Under our current economic system, we see a greater and greater divide, not between the rich and the poor, but between the extremely wealthy and everyone else.  

Are the extremely wealthy in their position because they are more clever with their money, they want wealth more, or somehow deserve to be richer than everyone else?  Or is it because they work so much harder?  380 times harder?

Is income inequality the inevitable outcome of capitalism?  What about the idea of trickle down economics, or Adam Smith's theory of the invisible hand?

What do Canada and Germany have in common?

Besides winter, a love of beer, and parliament buildings, what does Canada have in common with Germany?  A Triple-A credit rating, that’s what!

A credit rating is an estimate of your ability to pay back your debts.  Credit ratings are given to individuals when they apply for loans, and they are also given to nations by credit rating agencies to show how reliable they will be in paying off their debts, based on their previous actions. The highest credit rating available is a Triple A rating.

On February 22, the United Kingdom had its credit rating downgraded.  The United States and France have both had their rating downgraded recently, leaving Canada and Germany as the only two remaining western nations with a Triple A rating.  

What does that really mean?  A credit rating is an indication of financial health and prospects for the future. Having a high credit rating means that more people will be likely to invest in your nation as it's seen as a safe bet. Credit rating agencies don’t like debt.  They like to see governments making an effort to curb their spending and increase their earning of income.  

What is the nature of humanity?  Why is there torture, genocide, and terrorism in our world?  Why do some people delight in tormenting others, as we recently saw in the Amanda Todd case?  And is there such a thing as "evil"?  If there is, where does it come from and how do we stop it as a society?

Evil shows itself in the deliberate act of hurting someone or allowing someone to be hurt.  It is describes as immorality or being wrong.  Sometimes it is just defined as "the absence of good" or the absence of god, however you perceive that to be.  

Cambridge professor Simon Baron-Cohen has explored the neuroscience between evil in his book "The Science of Evil."  Read an interview with the professor as broadcast on National Public Radio in the U.S. or watch the clip below. His studies have shown that evil sometimes comes from an absence of empathy, or the inability to recognize the feelings of others. 

If we accept Edmund Burke's statement that Edmund Burke stated "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," how should we respond to evil?  Incarceration?  Prevention? The death penalty? No matter where you believe evil comes from,  dealing with it comes at the place where the common good intersects with individual rights and freedoms.