Whenever I am done with a hard day, which luckily I have not had many of recently, I like to sit down and lose myself on the internet. Sometimes I will watch a movie or read a story, other times I will listen to music or browse a forum. Whenever I have a complaint, it usually has to do with the heat of the summer, a problem I easily solve by placing my fan at the edge of my desk and cranking it up to full blast. If that fails, I only have to grab ice out of my freezer, grab a bottle of water, mix the two and I have my solution.

Not everyone is so lucky.

Most everyone in a similar situation to me is well aware of this fact, but it doesn’t stop them from taking for granted these things that make our life so easy, and it shouldn’t. We have every right to live as comfortably as we can. The only issue, though, is that the people who are not so lucky do as well. While I can sit on my computer for hours at a time and not have to do anything else, there are people who cannot afford to sit idle for more than a moment, and for some, not even that long. It is from a comfortable position that I am able to look as objectively as I can at the never ending problems that plague this world.

Humanity has built so much, for so long, and everything we have created only continues to grow in complexity and connectivity. Just last August, I visited a friend in another state, a trip that is just over 600 miles, and there was never a portion of the trip that had to be off road due to the incredible network of roadways that this country has built and maintained. I am able to receive data from New York City, or Mumbai, or Moscow with a few clicks of a button on my mouse and a few keystrokes, all due to the digital infrastructure built all over the world. Even now, I am enjoying products built by peoples from all over the world because of a vast network of trading and commerce that drives the modern world day to day.

But not everyone has these things. In some countries, it will be many decades before the systems are even put in place to enjoy such widespread comforts.

What can we do about this?

Unfortunately, a single person has little power in solving these problems. You could, of course, go to rural Africa and start placing power lines yourself, or maybe go to the most rundown areas of India and start building farms and shelters. No, the real answer does not include just ourselves, but all of us. Humans are an ingenious race who has conquered more problems in the past century than in the past millennium. Where excess has always been the driving force, we must turn away from self-indulgence and work on something better, something greater than ourselves.

To solve the problems of world hunger, global poverty, human trafficking, and the other things that make my stomach turn, we must work together.

All of us.

Just a thought.