The history of wealth is not what most people have been taught or believe IMO … so here’s my take on it …
I got into a discussion on Facebook with an acquaintance of mine there, Michael Perez. He posted this:
History shows us that when wealth is forcibly redistributed, even with the best of intentions, those people who started out with the wealth tend to be exactly the same sort of people (if not the exact same people) who end up with a wealth when all is said and done.
We can also learn from history that If we want to reduce disparities of wealth, we can teach people to generate and communicate value while also teaching them how to delay gratification and manage resources.
Then I came back with this (very long) comment …( essay???)
Michael I “THINK” I get where you’re going, but where are you getting your data???
If we look at real data what we find is that “wealth” is typically created by a single driven individual (very Graves Five value-set orientation, e.g.: Giovanni di Bicci de Medici, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Cornelius Vanderbuilt, John D. Rockerfeller, Joseph Kennedy – or much longer ago, a very Graves Three value-set orientation, e.g.: Alexander The Great, Ghangis Khan, Attilla The Hun …). This wealth was then passed onto succeeding generations and in some cases with the knowledge of how to manage and build it further.
With enough wealth came the possibility of manipulating the system further to retain the advantages that wealth brings, including the ability to further grow the wealth. This includes manipulating the political and legal systems via the “rulers” in place at any given time, e.g.: the Pope, the King/Queen, the Parliament, the President … whomever necessary.
In addition there is clear evidence that the legal system can be bought, despite the claim and public image of fairness and “rule of law” being evenly applied to all members of society. The reality is that your legal standing greatly increases based on who you are/know, and how much money you can apply to maintaining, defining and “buying” your rights in society, both criminally and civily.
Using the ability to gain momentum via accumulated wealth, including political and legal favoritism, even greater accumulation of wealth becomes possible. This is clearly evidenced in the history books.
The “best of the best” establish forms of protection that virtually guarantee that the wealth will be retained, e.g.: family offices (the legal entity), foundations and trusts. However these require a certain degree of wealth to establish and sustain in the first place.
Further if we follow those who are “new” to wealth and lack deep and proper guidance about maintaining and passing on their wealth what we find is that seldom does it last (maybe this is what you are saying, huh?). Instead succeeding generations squander the wealth they receive, because they’ve never learned how to generate it themselves, and there is an ever widening base of distribution, e.g.: children to grandchildren to great grandchildren … and so on … eventually eliminating sufficient concentration of wealth to sustain the dynasty. This is avoided when the proper mechanisms are in place and are not circumvented by succeeding generations … i.e.: family offices, foundations, trusts, etc.
Now we see that the possibility of accumulating truly significant wealth requires A) extraordinary luck and timing, i.e.: right place/right time/right idea … e.g.: Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Peter Theil, Mark Zuckerberg … B) willingness to do whatever it takes to circumvent the normal societal constraints and systems – including the collusion of the political and legal system surrounding them to make this possible, i.e.: transferring significant public wealth into private hands, e.g.: Mikhail Kordorkovsky, Carlos Slim, Lakshmi Mittal and on a lesser scale (financially) Dick Cheny and others …Ā (a scheme theoretically perfected by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School), or C) becoming famous enough via talent or position to create an extraordinary success and draw incredible wealth to you, e.g.: Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bill Clinton, J.K. Rowling …
However the among the most common ways of accessing extraordinary wealth are the oldest … inherit it, marry into it, or accumulate it over many generations (this is more common that is widely know about, because the scions often seem to have come out of nowhere, versus being the result of “selective” breeding programs).
Now I come to your re-distribution comment directly … there is no clear evidence that in a fair system those who did not begin wealthy, but came into wealth had any less success retaining it than others. First of all there is just no data, and second of all there is no fair system – every system on the planet today and for the last few millenia has been rigged in favor of the already wealthy.
There is however evidence that a significant number of “poor” people given the chance will do what it takes, e.g.: get the required knowledge and skill, and then work relentlessly hard to accumulate wealth if given a reasonable chance. This is the immigrant tale in the U.S. that’s been running here for centuries and has produced the world’s greatest concentration of millionaires and billionaires. The challenge today is that the opportunities for doing this going forward is shrinking … NOT BECAUSE OF UNFAIR TAXATION AND WEALTH DISTRIBUTION … but rather because of the unfair leverage held by those already in possession of the wealth.
Limiting regulatory measures have always been a greater hinderance to the generation and accumulation of wealth than taxation. In fact with enough wealth taxation is merely a bother, almost without implication (see Warren Buffet’s statement about the taxes he pays versus his secretary). However, things like patents, licensing, government oversight and regulation, e.g.: FDA, intellectual property laws … make it far more difficult today to create wealth than just 100 years ago.
None of the above is to say that we don’t need a major re-hauling of the tax codes and re-thinking of the social systems in place. But for my money I’d re-think and overhaul the political and legal systems first any day. Then I’d educate the sheeple about the revolutions that have given them the freedoms they enjoy, those they dream about … and most importantly those they have lost.
I’d add in that what I think of as “real wealth” goes beyond just addressing financial considerations. When I think of what wealth is it’s more akin to Trevnanian’s character “Nicolai Hel” in his novel, “Shibumi.”
I’ve been making noise about this idea for many years (over two decades actually, going on three) … and most recently I’ve upped the ante so to speak, by coming out directly about my focus on developing a much more “yin” approach to balance the “yang” of the society with live in, with all of its excess.
Many years ago now I began expressing my ideas about wealth and the creation of “real wealth” … i.e.: that which leads to true personal freedom and liberty, which can only become present when you remove the concerns of finance from a central position in the overall consideration of wealth. I designed and delivered a program to this effect, ‘Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success” in 2005 and presented the strategies I’d uncovered that truly wealthy and successful families pass down from one generation to the next.
The real keys to wealth creation and retention are elusive for the average person who hasn’t absorbed the lessons of wealth from the time they were in the crib … at the dinner table … and in every interaction regarding it in their life. Instead of building the mindset held by virtually every wealthy individual since money was invented, the average person in today’s society is fed a pablum of lies literally designed to detain, distract and deny them from every entering the ranks of the truly wealthy.
Think about it …
- Who would the wealthy hire if no one would take minimum wages to do what they’re unwilling to do themselves?
- Also, when you understand leveraging and compounding wealth based on the labor of others, how would it be possible to create or accumulate great wealth if no one was willing to join the masses of the working poor?
There’s more I could add, but this should get you percolating if you’re of a resonant spirit.
I’m curious what you think about it all.
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect & Designer of the MythoSelf Process and Soma-Semantics
Princeton, NJ
P.S.: I want to pass along a free bonus handout from the “Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction” program material I prepared that you can download, with some of the strategies and secrets I learned in my study of the truly wealthy, there’s nothing to sign up for, or sign in to, it’s just a link to download the PDF:
P.P.S.: I also converted the “Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success” CD to a downloadable MP3 format and if you’re interested you can get that here:
Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success MP3
I have a question Joseph, and it’s quite possible that I’m a bit confused on the subject especially when one considers all the self help “experts” out there who talk about the role of self esteem and how that, according to the “experts” can diminish one’s chances for success unless it’s addressed. What are your thoughts ?
Thomas – To begin I’m not sure what you are confused about. If you’re simply asking, “Does self-esteem have an impact on one’s success, or potential for success?” I’m inclined to say “YES.”
If you are relating that question to my long response to Michael Perez, then it’s not so simple. Again, my inclination is that “YES” it (self-esteem) does have an impact – but the larger impact of the twists and turns within the system, and the implications therein, has a greater impact in potentially limiting your wealth IMO.
Put another way I’d say that you cannot (will not) begin without a sufficient level of self-esteem in place. However, with all the self-esteem in the world you won’t get far without the awareness, knowledge and understanding of how the system works. Then you need additional personal resources to connect what you know with what you do. So the complexities mount at each level that you observe.
When I pare away all the extraneous considerations what I find is that folks who succeed with regard to significant wealth creation specifically share some common traits – I flippantly summed this up as an orientation to Graves Five values.
If we dig in just a bit what you find is that these folks who succeed assume a potential for success, a thirst for the knowledge required to succeed, a willingness to do what it takes, a huge capacity for work, tremendous focus and tenacity, and virtually no inhibitory responses that limit their ability to act in the direction of achieving their intentions. This BTW is a very rare set of traits to have out of the womb – most come by them through years of trial and error learning, and NOT by sitting at the knee of some master, or kissing the big toe of some guru – while they may indeed have done either of both of those, they were putting what they received into action during every other waking moment.
I hope that helps … Joseph
I’m finding you and your thought provoking conversations amazing.
It seems to me that people largely stay where they were programmed to be at an early age by caring but unknowing people who loved them, yet who lacked understanding and pursuit of a big vision.
Personally, I find myself continuing to fight (somewhat unknown to me) demons, that would keep me from living the much bigger life that I somehow know, from somewhere deep inside of me, that I’m absolutely capable of.
I do believe that each of us have our own vision and that some of us are simply satisfied as “worker bees” and some of us are in fact at the other side of that equation as “visionaries” with great things to bring to the place we find ourselves in this awesome party called life.
Isn’t it true that our truest gifts are somewhat ingrained in us, and that our true purpose is either being acted upon and fulfilled, or denied by faulty (early misguided) programming that can tend to keep us from being truly all that we could be and even further want to be?
Man, it has got to be a blast to work with you. I’m having fun just scratching the surface.
Rick – thanks, and YES! it is a blast to work with me! Dang it, while I’m awake I keep myself amused for 82.5% of the day regardless of what I’m doing, I make myself laugh another 14.2% and the rest of the time I’m in the toilet taking care of the essentials. Heck, if you asked anyone who’s been in the room with me on a live program they’ll tell you when I cover the administrative rules of conduct up high on the list is that “I am here mostly to amuse myself.” I have immutable integrity and a deep sense of honest arrogance if nothing else …
Anyway … onto to what I think is your main point …
Getting out of the loop of imposed enculturation, foisted on us in large part through what is referred to as “education,” is virtually impossible without a trained guide.
Another thing anyone who’s been through a full MythoSelf Facilitator’s training program will share with you is that I insist on everyone watching Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” (http://tiny.cc/5y56a). In addition to me there are those who have watched it more than a dozen times. It’s a commitment to make it through the film the first time (especially the way I do it … beginning at 11PM or so, all the lights out … room temperature about 30 degrees celcius … small flickering T.V. screen … ), very few make it all the way. However, sometime between the sixth and tenth viewing for many people it comes into full perspective.
Do you remember the scene from Disney’s “Ratatouille” about perspective?
(Quote from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/quotes)
Micheal’s Comment to Me On FaceBook:
Yup, I got comments… š
Joseph, I suspect that we are looking at different facets of the same gem.
My point was to say that if a broader base of people knew how to create, communicate, exchange and maintain wealth, it would be an important factor in reducing the inequality between the ’99 percent’ and the ‘one percent’.
Therefore my interest is not in people creating ‘extraordinary’ wealth, as you aptly put it, but rather creating and maintaining a new level of ‘ordinary’ wealth in a significant percentage of a given population. Otherwise, I’d be doing the Lake Wobegone error (where all children are above average).
You rightly point out the structure is, thankfully, now being talked about quite a lot; that is to say, ‘crony capitalism’ and suggest that that is a (the?) major factor in this problem.
I agree.
Adam Smith said, ‘Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.’
Of course the rich now shelter their money and property in the form of corporations, and those corporations seek to create barriers to entry in any field in which they operate. And of course they use the civil government as the instrument through which they put those barriers into place.
It’s also worth pointing out that I wasn’t specifically thinking of taxation or of governments when I was referring to the ‘forcible redistribution of wealth.’ In my opinion, restricting access to capital and the means of production by whatever means is an indirect but forcible redistribution of wealth by the monopolization of the known means it’s creation.
At the same time, that’s one of the reasons why I talked about ‘wealth’ and ‘value’ rather than money. The creation, communication and change of value need not necessarily be a monetary transaction. That can be an important factor in getting out of the system that is designed to disadvantage and eventually impoverish those who are not at the top of it. When it’s not money, it’s harder to track and control.
Dismantling the various forms of crony capitalism is a wonderful idea and I think it’s something that all of us should work towards. markets should be regulated to protect people from those in economic/political power. However, those in economic/political power are the ones who get to regulate the markets. š
At the same time, I think that we have to teach people to create value and wealth that exists alongside the current system but not necessarily a part of that current system, so it is not as limited by those barriers to entry as a more traditional approach might be.
As one small example, value and wealth in the context of grassroots bartering and trade swaps can do a lot to raise the basic standard of living in an entire community. And that sort of thing can work nearly anywhere it’s tried as long as you can bring together enough people to create a critical mass to support the ongoing activity.
And there are lots of historical and current precedents for this. the ‘black’ economies in just about every country support a number of people in this way in spite of the prevailing economic systems there that would otherwise prevent this.
And I hope that my clarification has been lucid enough to allow you to understand what I’m thinking without having to quote several of them, as I much too lazy to spend very much more time looking up references, at least at the moment! š
Also, it’s worth pointing out that Warren Buffett is, in my opinion, one of the greatest PR weapons of the ‘one percent’ in keeping their wealth by continually bringing focus to the personal income tax of the wealthy which is only the slightest fraction of their actual wealth. He has not even gone near dismantling the corporate veil which is where they’re *actually* hiding the money. during my time talking to some of these people, the number of them who had a take-home pay of exactly $1 a year never ceased to amaze me.
So, in my opinion, Buffett is doing a brilliant piece of misdirection here and it seems to be working in keeping people’s attention away from the man behind the curtain.
Anyway, thought provoking as always, Joseph! And thank you for prompting this clarification.
My reply to Michael …
Dr. Riggio,
first of all I want to thank you for this interaction and the one with Rich Schefren. Each new communication you share add a new harmonic, but each time I perceive more and more the integrity or the center from which the sound originated, if you may allow the metaphor. (And talking about metaphor, your image, pablum of lies, made me laugh very loud ! )
My little tao is very interested to see the more yin approach… I find value in the new social movements, the “Anonymous” and the “99% vs. 1%” or “occupy” movement but again, I am not sure about the means. First of all, even though I am not the wealthiest guy on the block, I feel I am more IN the 1% ( or perhaps the 2%) wealthiest on the planet. Most of my students ( I teach french to immigrant nurses ) are from Africa ( and magrehb). When I tell them I have four daughters they KNOW I am very wealthy. For them there is a continuum of wealth between money and the daughters…
I know this post concern more money than value.
I know what are my values and from this stand I am wealthy. I see power games in the name of money and I do not want to play, most of them. Because I do not want to play those games, I do not make money.
Now come an epiphany I had, meeting you.
If you allow another metaphor.
At first, I saw people playing chess and I thought it was the game of life. I learned the rules to prepare myself. I played a little. Than one day, someone brought the game of “Monopoly”. All I learned about chess was irrelevant. I studied “Monopoly”. I played some. Loose some. Win some. Then someone said, “No, we play Risk”. I was f***.
My epiphany, meeting you is this : the power is in the hands of who brings the game…
The wealthy elite pressed the lemon of debt long enough, I don’t think there is a lot of juice left. As society, we create wealth by creating debts… Perhaps it is time for a new story, after all.
Joseph, your comments about wealth redistribution are refreshing. To add to that perspective, I would argue that wealth redistribution other than in a value exchange with parties who are free to act or not is an artificial wealth redistribution. It doesn’t come just with taxes and welfare programs for individuals and families. It comes also from political entrepreneurship — that is, using wealth as a lever to extract unearned benefits according to some dubious standard of “public benefit.” A prime example is the use of public monies to support professional sports stadiums. If a business owner secures public funds on a basis that is not available to other businesses (direct subsidy, below market financing, etc.), or if a large business is able to influence the erection of regulatory barriers to entry, then we have public money used to benefit some to the exclusion of others, usually based on some sort of political pull.
However irrational or rational economic decisions are made, the point is that the marketplace will regulate the proper prices of goods and services, including wages. If a wealthy person does not want to maintain his own landscaping, he can hire someone to do it. If there is no one willing to perform those services at the price he is willing to pay, then the wealthy person has a decision to make — do it myself or offer to pay a greater amount. How much he values his free time or dislikes doing yard work are individual matters and each person makes his own tradeoffs.
The answer (and I don’t think that you were implying this) is not further wealth redistribution, but rather a fundamental reconsideration of the economic rights of individuals and the proper role of government in regulating an economy that moves too fast and readjusts itself to the regulation attempts. The source of wealth is value creation and exchange, initiated by individuals, free of the coercion or fraudulent conduct of others. Government cannot create wealth and it cannot create jobs, not because it is not capable of spending money on projects requiring employees but because every dollar spent by government is a dollar which cannot be spent by the individual from who it was taken in the form of taxes or other siphoning process. The dollar that an individual would use to create a job is given to the government that supposedly “knows better.” It does NOT know better. And each individual is free to use his economic capital, including his labor, ideas and technology, as he sees fit, either by investing it or by purchasing something produced by another.
The welfare state is dying — and I mean the welfare provided to both individuals and businesses. You cannot take from those who produce and give to those who need without discouraging production. Ultimately, you run out of producers and there is no more wealth to redistribute.
I have worked in the wealth management field for over 25 years, including many of the top family offices. Most families do not understand the source of wealth and their wealth disappears by the end of the third generation. The successful families operate entirely differently. The strategies they use are starting to become more well-known. The problem is that I could publish those strategies and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference because most families would not be able or willing to execute them.
I highly recommend your audio presentation on the Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success. Of course, this short audio presentation can only scratch the surface. Hopefully, at some point, you will release a more extensive product on wealth creation for those who are willing and able to execute on your insightful wisdom.
Keep up the great work, Joseph.
John
John – Thanks for the kind words of endorsement. I’m not quite sure I’m the one to be doling out “financial advice” … in fact I’d insist that anyone treat any financial advice I might offer with extreme caution, to the extent of checking with a qualified professional before executing any strategy they think I offered them first. I am uniquely ill-qualified to offer financial advice, and anything you think you heard from me that sounds like financial advice is a communicative misunderstanding at best, and downright miscommunication at worst – because I can assure you I don’t give financial advice.
(Okay, now that we’ve dispensed with the appropriate disclaimer.)
What I offer are what insights I have as to what I’ve noticed extremely successful people doing (including finding and hiring extraordinary, competent advisers BTW, e.g.: financial planners, estate attorneys, investment advisers …). Within the scope of my expertise is a range of qualifications about how to make extraordinarily high-quality decisions, build, refine and tap into a well honed intuition, and access and sustain exquisite performance states from which to take action. Specifically, within that scope I know more than a little about how to create wealth and even more about how to do that via the vehicle of entrepreneurship (most specifically in a professional “private” practice – see: ABTI | Princeton Four Practice Areas (http://tiny.cc/q8ocf) and 7Figure Professional Practice (http://tiny.cc/d5sk5)).
What’s fascinating is how little the average person gets about how wealth is created. The misconceptions and delusions around this topic are astounding IMO. For instance the distinctions between creating wealth, growing wealth and retaining wealth are none existent for most folks – so by default they have very little access to wealth.
What I attempted to do in the short audio presentation of “Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction” (a little more than an hour in length) is to clarify some of these distinctions, and how truly wealthy people address them successfully. This knowledge alone would account for a several hundred percent increase in real knowledge about wealth IMO … but more importantly just a 2% increase for someone earning just $50,000/year is equal to a $1000 return year after year – yet most people are hesitant to invest even a paltry sum to get that return. This is the reason many folks are lost before they begin … i.e.: they don’t even have the courage to invest in themselves. That being said I’m thrilled to have the clients I do because they are in the top 1% … not necessarily of the richest, but surely of the most courageous and truly wealthy.
Thanks again for the endorsement and provocation to another small rant!
NOTE: If you want to see what the audio program is all about go here:
Seven Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success MP3
Alain – NICE!
Great article I do believe its a failure of our institutionalize education system where we teach everyone to become cogs and just work for the “man”.
How do we create more people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates college drop outs who got it..
Joseph,
This article is only my second exposure to your thoughts since I listened to your audio with Rich Schefren, and I am very glad that I subscribed.
I would assume that Michael Perez’s definition of “forced redistribution” was more along the lines of confiscation of wealth as has occurred throughout history in periods of revolution like the French revolution, Russian overthrow of the Tsar and more recently the ousting of the old regime in Portugal when many of the nobility were relieved of their wealth by the new socialist elite.
On a smaller but equally devastating scale, this process has been going on in Africa for a while and is now emerging in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring”.
While I would agree that the more astute amongst those with wealth would have made plans to protect as much of their wealth as possible during those examples of forced re-distribution, I would agree with Michael’s comment in cases where that part of the wealth that was confiscated found its way into the hands of the peasant class who had none of the skills required to protect or even use wisely that newly acquired wealth.
I had first hand experience of this in Zimbabwe when my farm which supported about 400 people was “re-distributed” I was also temporarily relieved of my freedom and almost, of my life. That farm today, almost 8 years later does not support a single person. One family squats in our burned out house, depending on food aid, everything remotely valuable has been stolen and the formerly arable land is fast reverting to bush.
Yes, those with wealth and connections will find it easier to both increase and protect that wealth. But many of those also use part of that wealth to invest in employment producing ventures to provide jobs for the majority who do not have the inclination, inspiration or perspiration to create their own wealth.
Increasing taxes or otherwise penalising success in wealth accumulation will at some point force the wealthy to move their wealth elsewhere.
My concern is that by focusing on income inequality and “fair” taxation on the wealthy, we are attacking the wrong end of the problem. We should accept that there will always be a small percentage of very wealthy people. Unless they do break the law, we should leave them alone and concentrate on elevating the lower end of the wealth spectrum – and not by hand outs either.
Wow, Joseph…it seems like you know a little bit of what is going on…which is quite incredible for an nlp/pyschologist guy – bravo!
Joseph,
Thank you for the thoughtful conversation and sharing. Your response to Mr Perez is a concise encapsulation of much of what I am working to understand for myself and my family, AND much of what I attempt to discuss and debate with those with whom I live and work, most often to no avail. I have a personal desire to gain access to a financial life less contorolled/limited by the whims of others for myself but I also desire to be able to “pass on” something more to my son. He, being a 21y.o. college student, is keenly aware that there is a way of being, a heritage of lifestyle (thinking, tradition and opportunity), that is shared among some in the world that others who by their own inadiquacies of heritage, education, indoctrination, and motivation is mostly, if not completely, unaware. My question or quandary is how to access this different way of being while still living with financial limitations that subsequently limit access to coaching or mentoring that could potentially offer insight into these “secrets” of those who have successfully passed them from generation to generation. A firefighter’s salary, while sufficient for meeting basic necessities, does not provide a great deal of room to gain access to more. I am wondering what your perspective is on how this system is changed or broken out of while still living with its limitations. One cannot lift himself off the ground while pulling on his own bootstraps.
Thank you again for the thoughtfull conversation
I agree with your sentiments Joseph “But for my money Iād re-think and overhaul the political and legal systems first any day.” I often wonder about our last president, that his failure to act responsibly, was simply a way for him and a select few to profit highly off the premise of war. Yes while they are pinning medals on those poor saps who’ve been mislead into thinking they are protecting life, they are merely protecting someone else’s ability to manipulate the system.
I’ll re-post my response from that discussion there here, for those interested…
***
Yup, I got comments… š
Joseph, I suspect that we are looking at different facets of the same gem.
My point was to say that if a broader base of people knew how to create, communicate, exchange and maintain wealth, it would be an important factor in reducing the inequality between the ’99 percent’ and the ‘one percent’.
Therefore my interest is not in people creating ‘extraordinary’ wealth, as you aptly put it, but rather creating and maintaining a new level of ‘ordinary’ wealth in a significant percentage of a given population. Otherwise, I’d be doing the Lake Wobegone error (where all children are above average).
You rightly point out the structure is, thankfully, now being talked about quite a lot; that is to say, ‘crony capitalism’ and suggest that that is a (the?) major factor in this problem.
I agree.
Adam Smith said, ‘Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.’
Of course the rich now shelter their money and property in the form of corporations, and those corporations seek to create barriers to entry in any field in which they operate. And of course they use the civil government as the instrument through which they put those barriers into place.
It’s also worth pointing out that I wasn’t specifically thinking of taxation or of governments when I was referring to the ‘forcible redistribution of wealth.’ In my opinion, restricting access to capital and the means of production by whatever means is an indirect but forcible redistribution of wealth by the monopolization of the known means it’s creation.
At the same time, that’s one of the reasons why I talked about ‘wealth’ and ‘value’ rather than money. The creation, communication and change of value need not necessarily be a monetary transaction. That can be an important factor in getting out of the system that is designed to disadvantage and eventually impoverish those who are not at the top of it. When it’s not money, it’s harder to track and control.
Dismantling the various forms of crony capitalism is a wonderful idea and I think it’s something that all of us should work towards. markets should be regulated to protect people from those in economic/political power. However, those in economic/political power are the ones who get to regulate the markets. š
At the same time, I think that we have to teach people to create value and wealth that exists alongside the current system but not necessarily a part of that current system, so it is not as limited by those barriers to entry as a more traditional approach might be.
As one small example, value and wealth in the context of grassroots bartering and trade swaps can do a lot to raise the basic standard of living in an entire community. And that sort of thing can work nearly anywhere it’s tried as long as you can bring together enough people to create a critical mass to support the ongoing activity.
And there are lots of historical and current precedents for this. the ‘black’ economies in just about every country support a number of people in this way in spite of the prevailing economic systems there that would otherwise prevent this.
And I hope that my clarification has been lucid enough to allow you to understand what I’m thinking without having to quote several of them, as I much too lazy to spend very much more time looking up references, at least at the moment! š
Also, it’s worth pointing out that Warren Buffett is, in my opinion, one of the greatest PR weapons of the ‘one percent’ in keeping their wealth by continually bringing focus to the personal income tax of the wealthy which is only the slightest fraction of their actual wealth. He has not even gone near dismantling the corporate veil which is where they’re *actually* hiding the money.
During my time talking to some of these people, the number of them who had a take-home pay of exactly $1 a year never ceased to amaze me.
So, in my opinion, Buffett is doing a brilliant piece of misdirection here and it seems to be working in keeping people’s attention away from the man behind the curtain.
Anyway, thought provoking as always, Joseph! And thank you for prompting this clarification.
By the way, Joseph, of course you’re spot on about the values constellation in Graves 3 and, later, Graves 5 usually being present in certain contexts over certain periods in those who accumulate extraordinary wealth.
I think it’s also interesting to note that in a lot of my dealings with people who run highly successful hedge funds, they are still usually very strongly holding values in alignment with Graves 3 in that context and over those periods in which they operate in this capacity, in my experience.
***
By the way, there was some great follow-on discussion after this as well. Facebook has proven to me to be a great place for lively discussions if we choose to look at it as that!
Be Well,
Michael
Oops, sorry for the repeat material! the replies did not turn up on first page load for whatever reason.
Yeah Joseph you’ve got me percolating alright. I’ve seen it from this perspective. The working class poor you mention are nothing more than modern day slaves who’ve bought into the bullshit they’ve been fed. These people that run these organizations are clever too. They use words like teamwork and often they tell their employee’s they are a valuable member of the team. I think, if I’m so damn valuable then why is my pay so lousy ? lol. The solution in that instance would be to raise their (poor) awareness of just how valuable they really are, Unfortunately that crap started not just in the environments in which they were initially raised but it was perpetuated and reinforced through our wonderful education system in which we produce nothing more than mindless competitive drones.
We teach people that they can have anything they want in life as long as they have that piece of paper that somehow makes them competent to perform the duties as prescribed by this modern day culture.
I’ve always been fascinated with leadership and yet many of the ones who have been indoctrinated to this failed version of education lack many of the skills required for greatness.
Blimey. What a lot of comments! And interesting, too. But I have to say, (in the words of Freddie Mercury) it’s late, it’s late, it’s late (but maybe) not too late…?
Wondering about this perspective which on my journey I am noticing and drawing data from…
I put forward that the rest of the population other than the ‘1%’, entrepreneurs or whatever the heck we might call them/us/me are also held in place by
– population control with vaccinations and over-prescription of pharmaceuticals
– same with toxicity in the food supply
– mind control with, to coin Joseph’s term ‘enculturation’
– media mind control and the enforced application of ‘dreams’ while our brains are put to sleep with such drugging concepts as the ‘American Dream’ which is one of many dreams now making itself known as a flawed premise?
Is this just a side effect of what needs to be in place for some people to make it to the ‘top’ and we just have to deal ’cause we’re no better than this right now?
OR is there some intention in place so some people can make it to said ‘top’.
I’m always hopeful that the answer could be ‘none of the above’ and that we are evolving into what’s next…but what do others think?
Hoping for more light to be cast.