A Funny Thing Happened, On the Way to the Bank..

I got a letter today from someone who could write checks for north of 100k a piece, and I looked inside and saw a check waiting inside - and I suddenly felt sick. For some reason, I didn't want to see money. I felt as if getting a big check from out of nowhere would somehow be a distraction. My mind flashed to what I might do with the check, leaving the letter more or less unopened.

I finally concluded that I would play the game to my own rules. That if there was any money in the envelope, it would go to people that I loved but not myself. I opened the letter and then deposited the money in the bank, and plan on spending the money to buy stock for those people.

But then it occurred to me, that perhaps that was the point of how I had been raised. I don't think we should feel good about , say - winning the lottery. To have, in your hand - any amount of money on that scale is to suddenly upend your financial picture and most are ill prepared to deal with the consequences. Spending money is never really as fun as you might think it to be - far more exciting is to invest. And that type of money tends to cloud the picture towards the immediate. If you had, for example, a million dollars - would you invest it? Certainly you'd want to put the money to work somehow. Simply banking the money wouldn't be enough. You would want to do something with it.

The idea , I think - is that money from the clear blue sky seems to be connected - in some way - with the great crash of 2008 and the ascent of the bush republicans. These were people who specialized in making money out of the clear blue sky , mostly through cheating their way into it. The loss of big parts of our country - as a result of their unregulated theft of trillions of dollars and pursuit of a war of convenience against an innocent country - has left America in a place of mending. We follow, instead, Germany's example - of living within our means, and making more than we spend.

To then be required to spend more than we make - and to spend it randomly - is anathema. I enjoy, every year - timing the market for a stock purchase. I would offer that at this time, the markets are in a healthy position to go sideways and slightly up - however, the economic conditions from which the markets derive their valuation are very good. Most companys are sitting on alot of capital. I would argue that the jobs that were eliminated under the Bush Republicans in 2008, are not coming back. They were eliminated through technological innovation and the existing workforce is far more productive. Fewer workers are producing far more than before. We, as a country - have become competitive to others - in terms of low cost labor and productivity. We are also innovative - and have in the last year begun for the first time to export oil and gas to other countries. We've gone green, and turned our country around. The jobs that disappeared are not coming back.

But the work requirements are increasing - and the amount of work that needs to be done, is going up. We have alot of work to do. The world's first commercial spaceport is under construction in the New Mexico high desert. A new solar cell is being perfected at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and promises a commercialization value that will exceed cost for the first time ever - solar cells on your home , within the next few years - will pay for themselves and make a profit to the homeowner. Drugs are being developed to combat age related disease and a host of other immune related symptoms. And we have a long way to go, before the new technologies we have developed to interact in a meaningful and social way - with each other - are perfected to the point where they are actually useful to someone other than a marketer lurking behind the screen of data we send to them.

The idea that we can go to the moon, is a powerful one. The dark side of the moon is an ideal base for deep field astronomy. And it also holds the promise of a firm and useful construction site whose purpose is to craft the ships that will take us to other worlds - Mars, Jupiter and beyond. When we discover the first speck of life out there - even the smallest microbe - the entire game will change and the rush to space will suddenly be on. Yes, we get sick in outer space. Yes, we cannot last long in radiation and zero gravity. But we will make it there.

And it will take alot of work. You might be surprised how little money. America spent, over the past year or so - 757.8 Billion dollars on the Iraq war. We'll spend far less getting ourselves up on our feet and at full production again. And we'll make far more than we spend. Start off a business with a little bit, invest your time and energy - and make it pay.

It was then, I realized - that I had inherited my grandfather's deep mistrust of banking - and of financial schemes. Work hard, play hard.

Peace.

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