Kevin Rudd: Are China and the US doomed to conflict?

Prosperity is not only defined by financial status but also by the quality of living. Conflict that we experience with other cultures, people, or ideas that are radically different than our own (e.g. China) can harm our personal prosperity by not allowing us the peace and freedom that is earned through judicious financial behavior.

Andrew Bastawrous: Get your next eye exam on a smartphone

Though this may not be as crucial to those living in areas of the world with substantial infrastructure, it is now possible to have a blindness-eliminating eye exam through a smartphone application and a few dollars of attachable hardware. 39 million people in the world are blind, but over 80% of those people have conditions that are curable through proper diagnosis and now at a very 

Paul Pholeros: How to reduce poverty? Fix homes

Many diseases and maladies that arise from impoverished circumstances can be eliminated by improving the sanitary nature of the home. As simple, fundamental needs are addressed-such as toilets, showers, etc.-health improves, healthcare costs are decreased, and personal prosperity can 

Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters

The invasion or surrender of personal privacy through unwarranted surveillance breads conformity and submission. Privacy matters because it offers a place free from the fear of judgement from others, it allows creativity and individuality to flourish and provides circumstances under which personal prosperity can occur through truly free and individual decisions (not conformed ones).

Myriam Sidibe: The simple power of hand washing

Simple daily habits can have an enormous effect on personal health throughout a lifetime. Hand washing with soap is the most cost effective way to combat many common illnesses and it can save people enormous amounts of money that would normally be spent on copays, prescriptions, and 

Bruno Torturra: Got a smartphone? Start broadcasting

Smartphones and common technology can be used to broadcast to the world the happenings and events that affect the masses. 

Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic lives

Society has more and more turned to a model of providing purely monetary incentives for certain behaviors. Civic life is more meaningful when motivated intrinsically by social meanings that come from culture, family, and tradition; price motivated decisions innately separate people into groups (elite, middle-class, poor) that do not interact.

Michael Porter: Why business can be good at solving social problems

In order to solve or address social problems it's necessary to use some other resource-acquiring method than taxation (government) or philanthropic donations (NGOs). Business can create resources (money or otherwise) by meeting human needs while generating a profit; this makes business able to scale its resources enough to address social problems.

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly: Be passionate. Be courageous. Be your best.

What motivates you to be better than what you currently are? Even though everyone will face unique problems and weaknesses, there are common traits that are found in those that have overcome tragedy and weakness: optimism, faith (not fear), passion for a goal.

Ed Gavagan: A story about knots and surgeons

The investment in learning, training, and becoming useful in service to those around us is repaid when we are able to use those talents or training to help another in need. This man said that the surgeons who saved him "pushed back against chaos" in repairing his injured body; I would add that his brothers and sisters had used their talents and God given abilities and training to push forward the With the exception of Norway and Switzerland, the United States has higher per capita health expenditures than any nation in the world ($9,146). With new technologies and drugs being developed rapidly in today's healthcare market, often people underestimate the effects of simple public health methods that have been around for centuries. A bar of soap ($1.00) is the most cost effective way to protect against diseases and their symptoms such as cholera, diarrhea, trachoma, etc. A smartphone app accompanied by a $2.00 hardware attachment allows medical professionals to view retina conditions in the eye for a fraction of the cost of traditional eye exams and medical equipment (see www.peekvision.org). In conclusion, good, simple habits and creative use of developing technology can not only provide people with accessible healthcare treatment, but also treatment that is cost-effective.