The Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated.

The other day I tried a little experiment. I asked 10 different people, ages 15 to 65, if they could recite the Golden Rule. In every instance, they absolutely nailed it.

Sure there was some variation of word choice (like the more contemporary version listed above), but each person rattled it off without hesitation.

Why the reference? Because last week a report released by the United Nations said that world poverty could be cut in half by 2015, and eliminated by 2025! There is one caveat -- the world’s richest countries would need to double their aid to the world’s poorest countries. According to the Associated Press, the report provided details on what it would take to tackle poverty, hunger and disease and promote education and development, mainly in African and Asian countries. The report went on to say that 1 billion people in the world live on $1 a day or less, many of them going to bed hungry every night; life expectancy in the poorest countries is half that of people in high-income countries. Every month, 150,000 African children die of malaria because they don’t have bed nets to keep out mosquitoes.

The cost of a bed net is a few dollars. In America, we spend more than $500 per child on back-to-school shopping.

One of the primary reasons I lead with share in the Share Save Spend philosophy is to help all people, but especially young people, learn about gratitude. As a father from Missouri recently told me, “it’s about being thankful for the things we already have.”

In 2005, companies in the United States will spend more than $2 billion on advertising that is aimed squarely at children. The result: children will be deluged with 3,000 ad impressions per day that try to convince them life is about spending -- on themselves.

Every time I speak on the subject I ask young people and their parents how many of the 3,000 daily ad impressions encourage children to share some of their money with others. What typically follows is an uncomfortable silence followed by someone who says “not many.”

Sharing is a very powerful antidote to messages of hyper-consumption and selfishness. While the immediate benefits might be personal, the long-term benefits (think 2025) can be enormous and global.

Here are a few thoughts for infusing the Golden Rule into your family’s routine.

1. Ask each person to write down their version of the Golden Rule and then post it in a prominent place. If someone is too young, help them write it out.
2. Discuss what it means and how you can apply it in daily living -- especially when it comes to sharing.
3. Finally, compare the Golden Rule to the other messages you receive about how to use money.

It might be helpful to revisit this discussion throughout the year -- especially when spending is dominating the conversation.

How can the Golden Rule help you maintain financial balance in your family? You might not have thought about connecting the two, but hopefully you will see that how we use money speaks volumes about the things we value in life. This question is designed to build on the Share-Save-Spend tip for the week and can be used as a springboard for additional conversations with family and friends.

Boys have become the new darling of the health and beauty industry, spending an estimated $2.1 billion on shampoo, hair gels, and hair-coloring and other personal-care items last year.

Source: THE MORNING CALL ONLINE (Dec. 5, 2004)

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