Monday, December 15, 2014

Venezuelan Beauty Pageants & Living Income Guaranteed


YouTube Video Response Here. 

According to a DailyMail article online, in the country of Venezuela in South America, many low income families are sending their daughters, as young as nine to beauty academies where they go through rigorous training to win beauty pageants with the hopes of becoming the next Miss Venezuela or Miss Universe to win money and make a better life for themselves and their families.
One of the other points highlighted in this article is how parents and teachers in the beauty academies encourage these girls to get plastic surgery to fit certain ideal beauty standards because it increases their chances of winning. Parents will even go into large amounts of debt just to pay for their daughter's plastic surgery. So girls as young as 12 start going under the knife, getting butt implants, or hormones injected so they grow taller, and at 16 breast implants and in extreme cases getting a mesh cloth sewed on their tongue so eating solid foods becomes painful.

The consequences of these practices are not only painful for these girls, but also dangerous, because many of them die from the surgeries and chemicals injected in them, but many families and teachers overlook this point because their focus is more towards winning pageants and making money. ''When you live in a country where a beautiful woman has greater career prospects than someone with a strong work ethic and first-class education, you are forced into the mindset that there is nothing more important than beauty.'' says Maria Trinidad, from the organization No to Biopolymers, Yes to Life, where she is dedicated to educating Venezuelan girls about the dangers of plastic surgery . Now, perhaps it is like this because there is the idea that it's much faster to make money by winning pageants instead of walking the process of getting an education, going to college, and getting a good job. 

What we don't see within this is that only a small percentage of families will be able to have their daughters win these pageants, win the money, and indulge in the fame, yet what happens to the other daughters and families who were also involved? They lose, they don't get any money or win any prizes, so this is a problem because one family can enjoy the riches of their daughter's success but another can't, so how would we feel if we were on the losing end?
It's a natural human right for all to be able to have the means and resources necessary to live a comfortable life, but currently many families do not even have the means to live that kind of life, which is why I suggest we consider implementing a Living Income Guaranteed, because within that families who are poor, who have low-incomes, who are unable to sustain themselves and their children, who had to resort to sending their daughters to beauty pageants in the hopes of having a better life, will no longer need to do this because they will be able to receive an allowance on a monthly basis that will ensure that their basic needs are met, that their survival in this world is no longer something to worry or fear about, where then the focus doesn't have to be on sending their daughters to win pageants but can instead be directed towards allowing their daughters to go to school,  take art classes to develop self expression, go to college, and who knows what else a girl could do or become if the focus in their life was no longer towards winning pageants and making money.
I suggest you take a moment or two to check out what the Living Income Guaranteed has to offer. This system can really work if we all allow it to manifest. Check out the proposal here.

More information:

Equal Life Foundation:

Friday, April 4, 2014

LIG to Solve U.S. High-Deductible Health Insurance Problems


In many young adult's lives in the United States there comes a time when you cannot depend on your parent's insurance to cover for you because you've reached the age limit, so you either have to get your own insurance or not.  Being in my late 20's and "healthy" I choose this low-premium (a low amount of money to pay for my health insurance every month) plan, however in exchange for that I have a high-deductible, which means that if I were to get into an accident or have a sudden illness that requires hospitalization for example, I would be charged with the initial health care costs until I reach a certain limit. From there, I would have to pay a percentage of the total bill while my insurance company takes care of the rest.  

A series of events happened in January where I went to the ER three times. One was in Austria and the other two were in the U.S.  In Austria, I didn’t have to pay a thing because I was provided travel insurance in the country (the health care system over there in Europe is much different than U.S. and I will write a blog about that in time to come).  But in the U.S. I received a pretty hefty bill because the services charged did not reach the amount of money of my deductible for the insurance company to take care of.

Many adults like me and college graduates are having a hard time as it is to find a job and making a stable living for themselves.  In terms of paying for Health Care, it can really screw one over because you may not have enough money to buy insurance or even cover typical medical expenses so choosing the cheapest plan is desirable, but if something happens to you, you have to pay the initial medical costs yourself before the health care company does so. 

We really do not need to spend such hefty amounts of money for healthcare services, especially to the point where families in the United States for example are losing their homes because they don’t have the money. There is a solution that can be implemented to solve this situation, and that is: The Living Income Guaranteed.

If one doesn't have a job and cannot cover health care costs that is no problem because through the Living Income Guaranteed one is allocated an income that can be utilized to pay medical expenses.  Yet keep in mind the LIG will only give a reasonable amount of this income for people who actually need it, and this will be done through a means-test where the person’s income will be calculated according to their living expenses.* Then those with a job would work from at least a minimum wage which will be double the living income rate and thus, one will be provided with a salary that can assist in paying medical bills.  Therefore, once the LIG is set up, the worrying about having to take of medical expenses will lessen dramatically.

I suggest you take a look at what The Living Income Guaranteed by the EqualLife Foundation has to offer. The proposal is definitely one to check out and consider in terms of changing the current world system into one that supports all human life.

*initially any LIG recipients will receive the same sum, and as LIG evolves it will be more tailored according to people's specific needs.

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Please check out the documentary Sicko to see how the American healthcare system operates in contrast with others around the world.



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More Information on Living Income Guaranteed:
The Proposal
Website
Equal Life Foundation 
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