The Profit Prophet

On his deathbed Alexander the Great summoned his generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:  The best doctors should carry his coffin The wealth he had accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the way to his burial His hands should be left hanging outside the coffin for all to see Perplexed by these unusual requests, one of his generals asked Alexander to explain these wishes: Alexander & Aristotle And this is what he said: “I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate in the face of death, even the best doctors and physicians have no power to heal. I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that whatever wealth you acquire on earth, stays on earth. I want my hands to swing in the wind so that people understand that we come to this world empty-handed and we leave empty-handed after the most precious treasure of all is spent and exhausted — time.”  Yes, Time is our most precious treas...

May the hinges of our friendship never rust, Nor the wings of love lose a feather, May good health find those I love, And good fortune to those who love me, May any trouble that finds you be as short As your New Year's Resolutions And for better or worse, whatever will be, May another year be with thee....

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." * Adrian Rogers, 1931 *

I am writing this because I sent a somewhat cheeky email about a Father and Daughter (Dem v. Rep), and I got ONE irate response saying I was a propagandist! I was totally insulted, not because he thought I was a propagandist, but because if I was using propaganda, it would have been so much better than that email. Anyway, it did get me thinking about the morass this country is in, and why we are so far apart concerning the budget, taxes, and pretty much everything. So, being an engineer and a bridge builder (yes I love it when everyone agrees with me!!!), I thought about a solution that I think both sides of the political spectrum could agree on. If you really want to have a true redistribution of the wealth, then one thing needs to happen: wealthy, rich people need to go out and spend it on people trying to make a living locally, not charity..but prosperity…ooh, new slogan..…or invest it in companies…or whatever. Hording money is never a good thing, so how can we loosen those purs...

Here's how...and it is NOT what you think. As of 2009, the IRS did a study on how the 400 highest income earners made their money (if you want to go to the source, you can review it here: 400 Individual Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes , an annual report issued by the IRS).  To give you the Reader's Digest version, in 2009 $77.4 million got you in the club; but the average earnings were $202.4 million, a lot of money but well down from the $334.8 million average in 2007.  In interesting thing is WHERE they made their money: Wages and salaries:  8.6% Interest: 6.6% Dividends: 13% Partnerships and corporations:  19.9% Capital gains: 45.8% Yep, almost 50% was made in capital gains...investing in theirs or others companies. Diving deeper there can be seen obvious conclusions: Working for a salary won't make you rich. Neither will making only safe "income" investments. Neither will investing only in large companies. Own...

Some people do not understand why they become entrepreneurs and go blindly into an endeavor thinking that becoming rich is the only thing that is important. Here is a tale of perspective that all should read: ________________________________________________- An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "Only a little while." The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs." The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wi...

We are human after all, and being human, socialism will not work and this is why! An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the “sharing the wealth plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all). After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride ...

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." * Adrian Rogers, 1931 *

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." ~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

There is a lot of talk about "job creators" and "redistribution of wealth" and fair taxation lately. No, I am not an expert on taxation, but I tend to be a good student of the human condition, and I know one thing for sure, that while we are all created equal, we are NOT all endowed with equal gifts. Some of it is just luck, and some is hard work, but however it has been gained, there are differences in all of us and trying to 'make' us equal through taxation is just counter-intuitive. I believe the story below makes the most sense. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they dec...