I was thinking that maybe this is somebody's Year 11 Social Studies project.

Then Misopinionated started going on about being educated, and that clinched it for me. Yep, Year 11.

As a universalist, I look forward to the day, perhaps though not in my lifetime, when everybody doing similar work, anywhere in the world, is paid the same, male and female, Australian, Vietnamese, Italian, American, Chinese, Mozambican, no matter what country they are working in.

Try that for a Year 11 essay :)

Joe

I guess I'm lucky in many ways, I've certainly been told I am in any event? At 80 I'm in receipt of two pensions, one from DVA at 100% (non taxable), and the other, my police pension, which I think I've earned after over 32 years in the job.

I'm not educated like Mr OPINION, NSW Intermediate Certificate, in 1955, nonetheless I think I've done alright. I recall once on this very site one of the contributors alleged my police pension was for doing a cushy job and a life of comparative ease all at the expense of the NSW Taxpayer. I can assure everyone, it was no such thing, and some matters I've had to deal with, I'll carry to my grave. Is life all about money? No, but I'll concede we need money in which to live, without it, life would be tough.

"Money and fame makes me better looking."

me

Dear Hassie,

Yes I am a dreamer. To me humans are the most extraordinary
creatures. If someone asks me what makes me
happiest, it's never anything I can quantify like a house
or a possession. It is the spirit of the human being, which
can fill me with more joy than anything in the world.

They say that a baby smiles an average of seventy-two times
a day and a toddler laughs or smiles six hundred times a
day. We learn to smile very early in life. It is one of the
first things we do after we learn to cry. And how do we learn
to smile? By how much we are smiled at. Does our smile live
somewhere in the double helix of our DNA, or is it nurtured?

Somewhere in there lies the truth. which is - it is nature,
but it must be nurtured. To understand our mother's smile is
to understand our own smile, to know what triggers that
physiological response.

A smile is an indication of a happy heart,
and when you smile it changes your perception.
It can create a better day. As
frivolous as it might sound studies have proven that even
if you don't feel like smiling, if you force yourself to
smile, you will change your state of mind. By doing so you
can actually raise the immune-boosters in your blood.

The question is - where does that smile go? Why is it that
as we grow older we smile less? Could it be that we are
looking for happiness and fulfillment in the wrong places?
Is it fear that stops us from being happy? Have we forgotten
how to seek the simple pleasures that brought us so much
joy as children? To find the spaces between our thoughts
that allow these joyful memories to flood back?

I suppose the key to holding on to that smile is to try to
remember how much you smiled when you were young. Never
forget that dear Hassie, because that smile still lives
in you, no matter how old you are.

Mr O,

Humans are the most extraordinary of creatures, and
a big part of me still wants of reach an even greater
understanding about who we are. The more I learn the
more I realize how little I know. But that's not a bad
thing because it makes me drawn to the process of
discovery.

Money, be it shells or metal bits, or bits of paper with a promise
became essential as soon as more than two people lived near each other.
Trade without money quickly becomes impossible.