By: Allen Wells
# 015 March 26, 2009
It seems as though all we hear each day is more bad news. I have to admit, most of what I’ve written these past few weeks seem to hinge on bad news, not good news. That is why I try to balance my opinions on the world and economy with thoughts and essays on personal growth, relationships and life lessons. No matter what the economic times, relationships are far more important than money or the stock market.
"It's good to have money and the things money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things money can't buy." George Horace Lormier
Savings rates are up, for the first time in a couple of decades. Savings are the backbone of capital growth (even with fractional reserve banking) and ours had reached the negative savings point. Forget what Washington is telling us… spending is not the way out of this. Americans must learn to save again.
Americans have (I hope) come to realize you cannot finance long term growth with financial engineering… at some point you must have a product. It is now time to get back to earning money the old fashioned way – earning it. How do we earn it? We earn it by providing a good or service that people want or need.
This is the beauty of the free market system. The free market cannot be run by coercion. In order to succeed in the market you must be aware of the needs of the consumer and provide what they need (and want) at a price they can afford. In the free market competition is not only healthy, it should be welcomed. Without competition suppliers can get lazy… this is the problem with government run entities – they are a monopoly with complete control over the production and distribution systems – with no competition (see theVoiceCafe # 011 Gaining Security and Losing Freedom).
Our biggest threat at this point is twofold: Increased government intervention in our lives and businesses and the very real threat of massive inflation.
We cannot do much about the stopping inflation at this point, the massive money machine of the USG has already guaranteed this for us. At this point we must prepare for it to the extent possible. More people are planting gardens than they have in many, many years. Food prices are going up. It might not be feasible to get a cow or a pig, but just about anyone can plant a small garden.
Increased government intervention is coming. In the areas of health and welfare, business, first and second amendment rights… the changes are coming. It may or may not be too late to stop the rising tide but we can do two things, speak out on the issues and educate others. In order to do this, we must be educated ourselves. Many people I talk to agree with these principles (liberty, freedom, free markets, less government intervention, etc) but cannot effectively vocalize their beliefs.
This is understandable. Our society has increasingly focused on daily “topical” issues for an entire generation and forgotten how to study and prepare ourselves. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “I will study and prepare myself and someday my chance will come.” We tend to look for our chance, but we’ve not studied or prepared ourselves when that chance arrives.
If we are to take back our rapidly eroding freedoms and liberties we must learn to think and speak for ourselves with a well founded philosophical basis in what we believe. The majority of our children and most of my generation were raised in government schools taught the state approved philosophy or even no philosophy at all. I’m not talking about Aristotle and Nietzsche, I mean a clear, coherent philosophy of how to live our lives, how to relate to others (and ourselves) and how to understand property and individual rights.
My goal with this blog (and soon, hopefully webpage with more information and links) is to help educate others. Not to force my viewpoint down your throat, but to cause others to think, ponder and wonder. We have too much “noise” around us, we protect ourselves with radio, TV, iPods, and talking (non stop, on and on and on and on) so we do not have to think. Aldous Houxley said, “They intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they are.” This is us.
When was the last time you read a book (not a paper or a magazine)? I’ve heard is said, “books give you knowledge, magazines give you information.” Sometimes all we want is information – it’s a lot easier than a non-fiction book. Books require you to think, ponder and wonder… get my point?
To take back our lives, we must prepare ourselves. I stated in theVoiceCafe #10 “Truth, Lies and Doublespeak”: “As committed believers in liberty, we must continue to fight this battle every day. This is not a battle of guns and ammunition; this is a battle of words, thoughts, concepts and ideologies. If we don’t win that battle, we may end up in a war of guns and ammunition.”
Good from the bad? Let us wake up to the threats around us. Let us learn to defend ourselves philosophically. The cost is much less and the danger is much less than having to defend ourselves physically.
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." – Mark Twain
With warmth and regards (as always),
Allen
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