Pay a Little More?

We had a discussion a few weeks ago in my Sunday school class at Williams Memorial United Methodist from the Cokesbury Adult Bible Study series with the title "The Choice to be Just."   One of the key readings was from Jeremiah 7 “⁵For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, ⁶ if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷ then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever."

The discussion turned to such things as should we be willing to pay more for goods and services if it will allow others to be paid a living wage.  Or that we would have clean air and water and a good environment to live in.  Environmental law and a variety of issues were discussed.

This brought to my mind several items I have read or seen in the last year or so. 

• Several podcasts and articles on the minimum wage debate and executive pay.  One thing from the Brookings Institute.  http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/posts/2013/12/6-facts-about-a-minimum-wage-increase
• A lecture from Dr. Kati Stoddard about the differences in the environmental law concerning chemicals in the US and the EU.  In the European Union a company must prove a chemical is not harmful before it can be used in a product, in the US the chemical can be used and then it has to be proved harmful to remove it from the market.  Doesn't make much sense to me.
• The book and documentary Living Downstream.  Sandra Steingrabe is kind of a modern-day Rachel Carson.  She contracted bladder cancer and then began to look at the toxins in the environment.  She is a PhD scientist. 
• Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin.  I have just read the first part of this.  It discusses the problems caused by an industrial plant in Toms River, New Jersey.  Scary
• The Merchants of Doubt book and documentary.  These bring to light some of the dishonest things that major industries, like to tobacco industry, did to undermine the public perception of the health and environmental costs of what they were up to.  I watched the documentary on Amazon instant video.  I had read the book several years ago.
• Last Call at the Oasis.  You can watch this on Youtube or Netflix.  The is about water shortages but also talks about some toxic chemicals.  The real Erin Brockovich is in the film.
• The Human Experiment.  A film about toxins in the environment and in us.  Narrated by Sean Penn.  Available on Netflix.
• The "Dead Zone" at the mouth of the Mississippi River.  This is an area about the size of Massachusetts that is hypoxic due to the fertilizer coming down the river.  Hypoxic means no oxygen.
• http://www.healthygulf.org/blog/dead-zone-forecasted-be-average-and-thats-not-good
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dead-zone-size-connecticut-gulf-waters-180952260/?no-ist
• These are a couple of sites.  They are many more if you do a google search.

The redder the image the less oxygen.

Well I don't know how all that tied together, but would you be willing to pay a bit more for a better world?  Is it our duty?