What If Everyone Built Ego-Mansions?

My childhood music teacher was a wise philosopher. Included in her wisdom was a “measuring stick” she used to evaluate my--and other people’s--actions. “What,” she would question me, “would the world be like if everyone did or behaved just as you do?”

It is this measure stick I now use to evaluate Dennis Tito and his 30,000-square-foot ego-mansion. If every human being (5.3 billion) built a 30,000-square-foot monster, then solid houses would cover almost the entire land area of the United States and Canada. There would be no yards, no trees, just houses.

If every human being had 60 telephones, that would be 265 billion phones to be produced from finite resources. And 20 TV sets per person would be 106 billion sets. And add eight cars per person: that would be 42 billion cars made from whatever resources might still be left.

If everyone had the eco-morality that Tito has, then our natural world would be hopelessly polluted and probably destroyed.

ULA PENDELTON

Los Angeles