I got an email from my old friend Dick not too long ago, who is maybe the smartest guy I ever met, and I’ve known a lot of smart guys. He was coming through town and we decided to meet at our old hangout, Jay’s Bar.
Dick was from California, but he came through Chicago every now and then back in the 90s, and he often joined our cypherpunk hangout in the back room at Jay’s.
At the appointed time, I met him in front and we walked in together. It was still afternoon and there weren’t too many customers.
Jay was behind the bar, working a few hours (he’s retired now) to get things ready for the evening rush. His face lit up when he saw Dick. “Hey, mister Viking, I not see you for a long time!”
Jay always called Dick “the Viking,” which he really did resemble back then. I left Dick and Jay to talk for a few minutes and sat down at the other end of the bar and ordered a couple of drinks from Jamie, the daytime bartender.
After a couple minutes, some random business type came up to me and said, “Hey, isn’t that the genius who used to be on the talk shows way back when?”
“Sure is,” I said. “They found out that he knew just about everything, and so they put him on as a curiosity.”
In just a minute or two Dick walked over and the guy slid down to give Dick his stool. He talked about the TV shows for a minute, and looked like he was ready to get up and let the two of us talk (he must have seen us walk in together), but then he stopped and looked directly at Dick.
“Ya know,” he said, “you answered all those impossible science questions, which was really cool, but you never told us how to get rich.”
Dick looked the man over. “You’re already rich,” he said.
“Yeah, I wish.”
“Okay,” Dick said, “what do you make, sixty thousand a year?”
“Including my wife’s pay, almost a hundred.”
“Then you’re definitely rich.”
The guy looked some combination of angry and embarrassed. “We’re in debt up to our eyeballs! And not from buying crazy things. Between the cars, the house, schools and doctors for the kids, we’re losing money!”
Compassion didn’t always register on Dick’s face, but this time it did. And I knew him well enough to guess that this guy’s predicament got to him. He nodded his head silently for a few seconds, then swiveled slightly, hunched a bit, and spoke in a serious tone.
“You don’t understand me. You’re already rich. It’s just that you let other people take most of it away from you, before you can use it.”
The guy’s posture became soft and serious in response to Dick’s, but he didn’t get it.
“Look at it this way,” said Dick. “You get a hundred thousand per year, but your bosses also pay another seven or eight percent for social security, right?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, so you’re actually getting paid a hundred and seven thousand or so.”
“Okay.”
Dick reached into his shirt pocket for a pen and a small note pad. (Engineers’ habits die hard.) He handed them to the guy and said, “Here, make a quick list of all your expenses. Round up, ’cause you’ll probably miss a few.”
The guy said nothing, but complied. Dick and I sipped our drinks as he did. Then he handed Dick the list, which came to sixty thousand.
“You see,” said Dick, “You make enough to pay all your bills, with almost fifty thousand left over for investments or whatever. And you wouldn’t have to pay all the interest that you do either. The problem isn’t what you make – you’re already rich – the problem is what you let people take from you.”
The guy was actually appreciative, and didn’t speak for a moment, and then he said, “but the government takes all that money, what can I do about it?”
Dick turned directly at him and said, “First, stop saying that it’s okay. It isn’t. You’re rich, but they’re making you suffer, always at the edge of poverty. Start holding them accountable for what they do to you. Treat them like organized crime.”
With that, the guy had enough. He understood, and he truly appreciated what Dick had told him, but it was going to take him some time to digest it. He thanked us and left.
Jay came over. “So, you chase away my customer?”
“Sorry, Jay,” we both murmured like schoolboys. I said something about the other guy starting the conversation and Dick said something about just talking finance, but Jay just waived his hands at us and mixed a drink for another customer.
“Ah, I was right to put you all in the storage!” We said nothing. He was referring to the back room he used to give us. It was really a storeroom.
Then, he smiled. When it was over with, no matter how angry we had made him, Jay always smiled.
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See The Phenomenon of The Fiat-Driven Welfare State.
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Paul Rosenberg
Freemansperspective.com
I do not think of myself as rich, although here in South America, if people knew what my retirement income is, they would consider me rich. However, I have always considered that I have sufficient for my needs, and a surplus that varies with which I can enjoy some “wants” as well, or, more often, help someone who really IS in need. It helps that I consider all that I have to be a stewardship, and that I will one day be held to account for how I have managed this stewardship.
When we married, my wife and I agreed that we would never go into debt other than to buy a house, which we did, but which we also paid off early. We lived superficially poorer than most of our neighbors, but we never carried credit card balances or other forms of consumer debt, and we taught our sons to do the same, as best we could. Having said all this, I will note that it is not just the government that squeezes us – it is all aspects of our society. There is constant pressure to spend more than we have, and it doesn’t really matter how large our income is – there is always pressure to spend more, to go into debt to buy something NOW, rather than waiting.
One example: When our sons were small, we made a family rule that we would not buy anything advertised on TV. We explained that the TV ads cost a lot, and probably a third or more of what we might pay for the advertised product went to pay for the ads that pushed us to buy that product, and without the ads, we wouldn’t miss the product in any case. It certainly wasn’t a real need. We also considered exceptions – we might eat at a fast food place while on vacation, but not while living at home, etc.
It is not easy, but I am witness to the fact that it is possible to avoid many of the lifestyle choices that cause people to be trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty.