Big Smile, No Teeth: Why don't we humans use our fancy minds to plan ahead?

We’ve made a world where massive profits are made by the few at the expense of most of humanity – according to the World Bank, 734 million people lived on less than US$1.90 a day in 2015. — Bloomberg

One of the theories for why human beings are sentient – why we have a view of ourselves – is that having a concept of self helps us plan ahead instead of simply reacting to our needs in the moment. It is undeniably advantageous to be able to plan a few steps ahead – so why then are we so shortsighted?

This year continues to be a “tipping point” year where the cracks in the world’s current economic system are being exposed in the way it disregards both the environment and people. If only we had known about these potential problems years ago ... but of course we did!