Poor little rich kids

Geez magazine has a parody of Make Poverty History—Make Affluence History. I will admit out front that I have a few issues with Geez magazine, with their approach, their philosophy and their mission. This parody exemplifies some of what I think is wrong with Geez and their ilk.

Make affluence history is a clever parody of make poverty history. It raises some important points succesfully shifts my perspective and shatters some assumptions. It is indeed true that the children of wealth need prayer by virtue of their wealth. There is an intention here that I admire. However, the practical result is to allow self-satisfied people to smugly stop supporting the poor in favour of mocking the rich. A parody like this belittles the efforts of people who are doing the work of God--supporting the needy. A parody like this encourages people to stop supporting the poor. It makes the rich—and let's face it, the people writing this parody, the people producing Geez magazine, for all their talk about simplicity are rich in comparison to most of the world simply by virtue of living in Canada and the people viewing the parody are rich in that they have access to the internet; those who practice voluntary simplicity are still rich in that their simplicity is voluntary—feel better about themselves and do less to help the poor.