A Contest: What’s Your Choice : Money, Peace, or Happiness?

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Greetings and welcome to my Esteemed blog dear readers, its another opportunity to join a contest created by @alfazmalek so we can share knowledge on this crucial and important topic "What's your Choice: Money, Peace, or Happiness?" This topic is essential as in todays world, people constantly strive for success and other great achievements basically for three unique and interconnected reasons Money, Peace and Happiness.

While some people argue that money is the foundation of comfort, others believe that peace is the basis of a fulfilled life, and still many including my likes still holds that happiness is the chief corner stone. However, despites how vital these choices are, our present society posses a lot of challenges on these choices via economic inequality.

There are many challenges facing the society today and one of such is the widening gap between the rich, the poor and the average. In my country Nigeria, this reality is truly evidence and seen everywhere. While a few individuals brings so much wealth to themselves, others falls within the range of having and not having while majority eats from the crumbs.

The cost of living is not to be spoken about as everything as skyrocket except salary and wages. It is pathetic to mention that essential things such as health care and education is now a privilege rather than being a citizen's right. Honestly, the whole story makes the book "Things fall Apart" by Chinwe Achebe reflect in my mind.

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Economic inequality goes beyond mere financial problems (lack of finance) as it moves into all aspects of life eating deep and leading to different societal vices such as; high crime rates, stealing, kidnapping, prostitution, and even engaging in illegal activities so as to meet needs. This phenomenon leads to series of societal unrest such as protest (fighting against bad governance and and unjust political policies). In addition to the aforementioned, economic inequality affects the mental health of an individual this leading to anxiety and even suicidal thoughts and acts.

The pressure and effect of this phenomenon could really be seen when considering a young graduate who might have spent years studying a given discipline with an high hope of securing a work only to realized that there's no work out there. Yes! In most cases, companies refused to employ them despites how good their results are. Rather, they employ people with connections and experience.

At this point of their life, disappointed and regrets comes in then the available options could be Internet fraud (yahoo), hook up or any other form of illegal business. In some cases, the migrate illegally to other countries so as to survive and gain better opportunities. This scenario is not difficult to find in many countries of the world especially the developing countries.

In my opinion, in other to arrest this pressing issue, economic empowerment is one of the keys to achieve this and it should be considered at all levels of the country (government, business and individuals) below are some of the ways we could employ to achieve this;

Creation of Job and skills Development: Here, there's great need for the Government to generate and create employment opportunities for young graduates to have something worth doing. In addition, these employment opportunities should be devoid of biased and favoritism but strictly on merits. In addition to the creation of Job, skill acquisition should be made as a subject in the school level and as a course in the tertiary institutions. By this, many citizens would be self employed and in both cases would help in the creation of Job to others.

Giving support to small Businesses it is true that many small businesses have suffered greatly due to lack of findings, lack tax rate etc which inturns affects their inability to run their business smoothly. With this, I feel that if the tax is reduced and loans or grants are being given to them, the problem would be half way solved.

Far wages and improved conditions of learning: Under this heading, since most people do not earn salary but are also paid based on the quantity and quality of work done, I advocate that non salary earners should be treated fairly in regards their wages and that the condition of their services should be improved so as to make their work enjoyable.

Investment in Education and Healthcare: here, quality education should remains the right of every citizens and that adequate healthcare services should be provided and brought closer to the masses. This is highly crucial as an educated and healthy population would likely be devoid of crime and other societal vices.

Let me begin by stating that, solving economic inequality is not just the duty or obligation solely on the Government. Rather, it should be shared among the individuals, community and organizations to mention but a few. By this, the following are ways this agencies come to play;

Community Driven Initiatives: On this regards, local communities form groups and associations within themselves where money is raised for the welfare of their members and other community projects. This group could even be created among people of the same business with the aim of supporting their members.

Corporate Social Responsibilities: Here wealthy business men and patriotic individuals may undergo differ projects for the benefits of their communities. This project could be the provision of bore-hold, electricity, schools and even health centers in their communities. Here big companies can grants to entrepreneurs and scholarships to students.

Advocacy and social awareness: This is a very crucial aspect as enlightened programs on social media, news paper and seminar programs would go a long way guiding and shaping the community. With this, most youths would appreciate job creation other than job hunting.

a big mindset

Personal Responsibilities and mind change: Over the years, many people have been totally dependent on white collar jobs and have developed the mind of waiting for eternity until it comes. On this regards, there's need for a mind change towards entrepreneurship and self employment. Also, there is a need for parents to expose their children to basic life hacks such as; Saving resources, avoiding wastage and managing available resources.

This section intends to make a choice out of this three important options. Given the current economic situation of the world, there's a great task choosing between Money, Happiness or Peace. To make a better choice, it is essential to treat them singly before in groups.

While money provides security, comfort, power, hope, and opportunities, it is a fact that they are many wealthy people whom are still experienced great pains and restless moments full of stress, loneliness and dissatisfaction. All these proofs that money does not guarantee peace and happiness.

On the other hand, Peace is essential to those who wishes a situation of peaceful coexisting. But the question is this, Can it exist without finance stability? Without a doubt, a society with crime and violence is ideal but living without financial freedom makes it non peaceful. Think about a man living in a crime free society yet, unable to provide food for his family. Can such a man have peace? No!

The last but not the least is Happiness. I would love to refer us to my work on happiness Link It is true that happiness is always a function of internal state of mind. However, despites how we may try to fake things, or live happily, the absence of money would always make us sad and have mix feelings.

The whole truth about this is that there is a high level of interconnection existing between these three pairs. Because, a society that provides economic support and financial stability would tends to experience peace in the form of stability and when this happens, true happiness would be their watch word. As such, choosing one over the other is not ideal. Rather, creating a system where financial stability, peace and happiness coexist should be the major target

I want to humbly invite @xkool24, @alexanderpeace and @uduak01 to join the contest.