Are you spending or investing?
How many jobs does your debt create?
Humour is my cause célèbre but only because I take my/your/our lives seriously.
I'm getting older and the older I get, the more I understand about what I know about what I don't know.
It's good to question authority but only as long as you question those in authority as if you plan to take (or have taken) an authoritative position yourself.
In other words, responsibility.
My wife and I are in the bottom of the top 1% of the wealth of America. We don't own a lavish mansion or shopping malls across the world.
We're frugal. We make sure our investments (our assets) exceed our expenditures/debts (liabilities).
Now some will tell you you have to take on debt to grow your investment portfolio or your business(es). And I don't doubt the validity of their statements (unless it's a loan officer telling a newlywed couple that it's okay for them to exceed their debt ratio to get the house they really can't afford now or in the foreseen future).
You can follow many paths - Donald Trump or Meg Whitman, for example - to get into the megamillionbillionaire club.
You can let your family and friends ride your coattails to the top.
Your definition of wealth is up to you. After all, I'm not a radio talk show host telling you the way you should live your life to the detriment of the rest of our species.
Instead, I'm looking back at us from ten 100-year periods later than today.
How do you want our social hierarchies to look in a thousand years? Do you want me to say we're a feudal society in desperate times depending on dwindling resources? Or would you rather hear me say we're still promoting the rights of the individual to succeed because sufficient social resources are available to all citizens to improve their lives through hard work and dedication to education (self-directed and/or formal) because we had the foresight to protect ourselves from our worst hoarding behaviours?
Our world economies have faced some rough times, both regionally and globally. As you have seen, when that happens, those with money tend to find ways to ensure there are artificial barriers to protect their wealth. We don't want rogue traders or overzealous predatory bankers to bring down the system, for instance.
What do we with wealth do to protect our investments while stabilising society at large in the long run?
One person thinks our banana republic attitude is fixable. I agree.
It starts with changing our attitudes. Rather than saying we're countries at odds with each other, let's look at ourselves as a species with members who have various levels of understanding the complexities involved in how social interaction works, some looking at life from a more emotional level and some from a more logical level.
We can agree to disagree about our fundamental emotional beliefs and still engage in business transactions that benefit us individually and as a species.
It starts today. Right now. Not yesterday or in some idealistic future.
The turkey buzzard riding thermals over my house doesn't know what any of this means and I'm glad for that. A fresh perspective and nonunderstanding about my views make my life worthwhile.
That's why I take my humour seriously. Why my wife and I live frugally. We see the big picture.
None of us get out of here alive, no matter how much wealth we accumulate. Isn't it worth spending a little time and money on each other while we're here?
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