At a time when inflation is outpacing wage growth, this article about what constitutes a "living wage" - or a wage you can live off of without having to eat at a local shelter - is apt. In the past few years, federal minimum wage has remained fixed at $5.15 and the cost of living (specifically housing) has risen dramatically in many regions.

With Africa stretched fighting AIDS and tuberculosis, a bird flu pandemic could ravage communities which live side by side with poultry but lack the means to detect the virus. Delegates to a World Health Organization (WHO) conference warned a shortage of money and scientific know-how could leave Africa struggling to detect and combat bird flu, and the risk of a pandemic is growing.

A look at poverty in the U.S. and a "rich" man in the Congo who makes the same amount of money. Also looks at wealth and its relationship with happiness. An interesting read, even if there are no answers.

An excerpt from a December article from The Economist - a very interesting piece that juxtaposes two guys in two countries and their relative poverty/wealth:

"Why juxtapose the lives of a poor man in a rich country and a relatively well-off man in a poor one? The exercise is useful for two reasons. First, it puts the rich world's wealth into context. A Congolese doctor, a man most other Congolese would consider wealthy, is worse off materially than most poor people in America. That, in itself, is striking."

The Economist goes on to say that the exercise sheds light on the relationship between wealth and happiness, and the significance of relative poverty. For example, it says, the American makes $521 a month in a country where median male earnings are $3,400 a month. The Congolese doctor makes $600 a month where most people grow their own food and hardly ever see a bank note. So which of the two would expect to be happier?

I would argue that happiness isn't directly tied to money, and that it depends much more on culture. In America, our lives are centered much less around families than in most other countries. That said, it could be argued that we pin our happiness more on whether we are employed at all, or by our living situation. Very few Americans would be happy living without air conditioning or 24-hour running water.

In my time in Armenia (I was a Peace Corps volunteer there for three years), I rarely met anyone who was truly happy with their lives. And it had very little to do with the fact that they didn't have running water 24 hours a day and lived in crappy apartment buildings. I believe the majority of them were more concerned with having a job than with the physical conveniences of life. That was in part because many had jobs before the fall of the Soviet Union, and now didn't. In general terms, they measured happiness by employment, or what they could contribute to their family. Family was No. 1 in Armenia. Like in most countries in this world, it was perfectly normal for extended families to live in one apartment or home.
Happiness is difficult to measure. It's all relative to what you have known, and what you do know, and what you are able to see in the future.

For example, The Economist article says: "For a Congolese peasant, there is no shame in living in a hut made of sticks. Everyone you know does, too. In America, by contrast, the term 'trailer' denotes more than a mobile home, and the people who live in one know it. They are also acutely aware of how richer folk live, because they watch so much television. A typical poor household in America has two televisions, cable or satellite reception and a VCR or a DVD player."

But it is interesting to consider.