Australia = Largest Houses in the World…

check out my more detailed blog about this over on squidoo.

It’s official, we have the biggest houses in the world.

According to Commsec, our new homes averaged a whopping 214.6m2 in the last financial year (the US average is 201.5, the UK is 76.0).

source: http://www.carlislehomes.com.au/news.html

But for 1 in 6 people in the world, their houses look something more like this:

source: http://www.tear.org.au/resources/items/slum-survivor/

(And according to UN-habitat, in 20 years 1 in 3people could be living in urban slums).

And then there’s the 42 million (twice Australia’s population!) who are refugees/internally displaced people who’s ‘homes’ look something like this:

source: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/events/refugeecamp/press/usa.cfm?lang=73

Gets you thinking hey.

I’m not suggesting burning our houses down and moving into cardboard boxes just to even things out a bit.

But I do think one of the worst things we can do is to just, take it all for granted.

And I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tone things down just a bit where we can.

If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 1 John 3:17-18