Tag Archives: economics

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Monday Afternoon Ramblings – 6/24/2019

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I mentioned before that my oldest son keeps seeing all of these pro-communist posts on Tumblr. My assumption is that the vast majority are by recent college graduates who have been nestled in the comfortable space of academic idealism, where the theory of communism seems like a utopian paradise. The problem with most of academia is that it rarely can survive in the harsh and messy realities of day to day life.

The first question I would like to ask any pro-communist supporter is this: are you personally willing to tell Oprah Winfrey that she didn’t earn her money fairly and that she must surrender her assets to the authorities? What about Michael Jordan? That is the first step of communism, the seizure of private wealth, nearly always by force.

If Oprah resists, are you personally willing to imprison her? Injure her? Kill her? The academics tend to gloss over this step, as if people will just shrug and willingly hand over what they have worked a lifetime to earn. When you look at the real world examples of communism seizing power, a significant portion of the populace is physically harmed in the process.

If you personally are not willing to strip Oprah Winfrey of her possessions, congratulations, you understand in principle the folly of authoritarian rule.

That’s all for now.

New Ramblings

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings – 6/22/2019

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There are elements in this world you simply have to avoid as much as possible. If you allow them to, they will drain away all of your time and energy, leaving you little for your own prosperity.

First are the professional victims. These people are never at fault for their own failures. They always find someone or something to explain away their shortcomings. These people never grow and develop properly because they never learn to evaluate what they did wrong that caused them not to achieve their goals.

Closely related are the victimization enablers. These people, who come from every band of the political spectrum, tend to develop elaborate theories for why a particular socioeconomic group is struggling. From conservatives blaming immigrants to liberals blaming white people, the enablers dismiss personal accountibility and engender negativity. If you want to find internal peace, you must remove the victimization enablers from your reality.

Another form of energy leech is the constant complainer. Nothing will ever satisfy these people. If you give them soup, they prefer steak. If you give them steak, they want pie. No matter what you try to do, you will never satisfy their needs because their misery is deeply rooted. Your best course of action is to limit your exposure as much as you can.

To me, the most important people to avoid are the naysayers. These are the people who said that flight was impossible, that computers would be a passing fad, that we would never reach space. Naysayers will pick apart and scoff at any idea. If you aspire to create anything new, to start a business, to ponder fresh ideas, you will have to teach yourself to tune out the naysayers and listen to the animal spirit inside you. At some point, you will run up against an obstacle, and the naysayers will be quick to say I told you so. That’s when you will have to tune them out even more and trust that virtually every success follows a handful (or more) of failures.

That’s all for now.

New Ramblings

Friday Afternoon Ramblings – 6/21/2019

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Two and a half years ago, I had a hand-me-down Pontiac on its last legs, a handful of tools that were mostly worn out, and not much else. The lady I had been working for online sent me a message one afternoon that said some friends of hers needed some dirt moved around for a flower bed. That was her pitch. Some dirt moved around.

I have a master’s degree in writing. Once upon a time, I was a bestselling author, ranked number #134 of all books on Amazon. Not all fantasy books. All books, fiction and nonfiction. I was #2 in fantasy. I’ve delivered presentations to crowds of hundreds. I was a college instructor for over 16 years.

A tiny sliver of me felt insulted, humiliated, and demeaned that I had been reduced to moving around some dirt. But only a tiny sliver.

The rest of me saw an opportunity. Building a flower bed is my kind of work. Physical labor, dirt, nature. I could already see the flowers growing. In the back of my mind, I thought: landscaping business.

See, here’s the beauty of America and the free market. Everything is capital. You don’t have to have money to possess capital. An idea is a form of it. Your skills are a form of it. Anything and everything you can imagine can be transformed into an asset. I didn’t have much material wealth, but I did have a strong body, a broad knowledge base, a plethora of skills, and a vision for becoming my own boss.

Anyone who is willing to take the risks and put in the effort can develop their own business. The universe is full of problems that need to be solved, and people and businesses are willing to pay to have their problems taken care of.

That’s all for now.