I have a lot of money in the bank. The problem is, it isn't mine - it is the bank's and is earmarked for renovation work. If it was mine, a fair whack of it would be dumped onto the markets today in an attempt to make up for lost ground, since I should have started investing, well - anytime earlier in my life than I did - which has been in the last 3 years only.
Today I had to add a little bio about myself for a client, and I realized that it has been 30 years since I got my first paying job, which was clearing construction debris from houses before the painters and fitters came in to finish the interior. It paid well too, for an eleven year old, and was cash in hand. I probably spent the money on food.
The other day I bought a little Bitcoin at $7,800. Not much of course, as I don't have a great deal of disposable income to put on luxury items, like investments for the future. I am trying though and have the view that crypto is my opportunity to generate some wealth with very low resources, but I understand that at the level I am able to enter the market, any significant results that can change my life is going to take time.
I think we have created a society that more readily believes that the odds of striking it rich fast are better than they actually are. I have the sense that a part of this is due to the visibility of others who have done so, people who appear to become wealthy overnight, as the internet discovers a few of them from all over the world, and then spreads them globally to make it seem far more common than it actually is.
I actually feel that the the same thing happens for people to think that the youth are highly creative and skilled, because the internet tells them. I believe that we see so much cherry-picked special on the internet that we are fooled into thinking it is common, due to an availability bias. In a population of 7 billion potential candidates, it is pretty easy to find 1 million people who have for whatever reason, are brilliant, gifted, talented or just damn lucky.
For the most part, the people who are wealthy today and didn't inherit their position, have built it incrementally over time so that they have some extra, and when opportunity presents, they invest into it. The "invest in" is a very important aspect that many seem to leave out, as they do not want to risk the investment. A lot of people think they can get rich by saving, it isn't really the case. To be wealthy, you need the money saved to generate significantly and then keep rolling it in so that compound interest can run its game.
The challenge for many is to be able to have value just sitting there "doing nothing" as the temptation to use it for this, that and the other thing can be hard to fight in the socially-charged, consumption fugue state we have created. Ever wondered why they announce on the news that "consumer spending is down" as if it is a bad thing for the consumer?
It is kind of funny that we are often pushed the narrative that we should be supporting businesses, when in actual fact, businesses only exist because of us, they should be supporting the community. Why is it that corporate income and capital gains tax is lower than that of a person who works daily in a corporation, so that they can spend their earnings at it and the profits generate value for people who don't have to work for that income at all?
The system we participate daily in is very much broken, yet we persist and maintain the narrative, believing the few cherry-picked cases that others have worked their way to the top, and we can too. It reminds me of the old Schwarznegger movie, The running man, where the successful winners of the violent gauntlet run were publicly sent off rich and happy to a tropical paradise - only to all be later found dead in a locker room.
This is from the start of the 1987 movie.
The best bit is the missing space after the comma.
If we assume that 1% of the world's population are wealthy, that would mean that there are 75,000,000 rich people. How many of them do you think made their money overnight? Even many of the ones who inherited, likely have worked consistently to keep it generating value and, those who made the initial capital probably didn't get it in the lottery - though, there is always some level of luck involved.
I am not really cut out for investing, as I do not believe I have the right mindset for it, the right attitude and emotional fortitude. But, I am doing it anyway, because what choice is there? The sad reality is that the vast majority can't live off the grid, for as we do, it will all get Hunger Games and The Walking Dead very fast. And while people will say, that is the way of the world and the population is too high, how many would be able to follow through for their survival? And if they do, just imagine what kind of society that group of survivors will create. Post-apocalyptic movies are great to watch, not so great to live, I suspect.
At least, I wouldn't choose that future for my family, if I could help it.
And I can't. Most of the world is so far out of my control that there is very little I can do to make a difference to the global outcomes, but I can make a difference to the local outcomes. Firstly, to my own and those close to me. As they say, think global, act local. The problem is that through the digital platforms we can feel like we are acting globally, while our lives collapse locally. And while out attention is drawn to the global hysteria, those with the means and the will act in ways that will affect our lives daily.
It is like clockwork and we aren't a cog in the machine, we are the machines - and we keep on getting wound up until eventually, the springs will break and the watch will stop. The system is broken and we as consumers are the core part of the problem.
The problem is spreading like a virus.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
