Tag: economy

Maddie Coming Soon

submitted by jwithrow.Maddie

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Maddie Coming Soon

October 6, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened at $1,975, gold is down to $1,190, oil is hanging around $88, bitcoin back up slightly to $327, and the 10-year is checking in at 2.44%.  While this wouldn’t be a bad time to pick up an ounce or two of the yellow metal, the 10-year Treasury rate is what’s really worth keeping an eye on.  How long can the Fed keep rates suppressed?  Some say forever; some say until December.  I say “I don’t know”.  Assuming the folks who say forever are wrong, what then happens when rates go up? Some say the Fed can manage the increase in a gradual fashion; some say the poor 10-year Treasury has been cooped up for so long that it will blow through the roof once free of its chains.  I say “I don’t know” again but I tend to think the latter is probably more likely.  And then…

Shifting gears from economic future to family future, wife Rachel is 39.5 weeks pregnant as of today!  Coming soon: a little girl. How exciting!  We shall call her “Maddie”.  With Rachel busy working on her nesting list, I close my eyes and try to catch a glimpse of the future that awaits little Madison.

Look at all those traps.

Heavy metal toxins in infant vaccines? Round-up ready GMO fruits and vegetables?  Ouch.

Government-run public school system designed to feed the administrators and instill collectivist ideals in the children?  Probably best to steer clear.

Skyrocketing college tuition?  Will there even be jobs left in this economy in twenty-some years?

Opening my eyes, I am confident that we have a pretty good plan to help Maddie tackle the college problem: an infinite banking insurance policy paired with a “hands-off” approach.  We can fund a life insurance policy for Madison as soon as she turns two weeks old.  With an annual premium of $3,000 per year, the policy will have a cash value of at least $60,000 by the time Madison reaches adult-hood.  Then we sign the policy over to her and say follow your passion.  Want to travel the world?  Go for it.  Want to start a business?  Here’s your working capital.  Want to go to college?  No need for student loans.

Of course that $60,000 cash value figure is based on today’s purchasing power.  I am confident the insurance company will be able to keep up with inflation via long-term investments and sound actuarial pricing on new policies such that Madison’s policy dividends will keep up with inflation also.  Or maybe the dollar crashes and the insurance industry has to denominate their policies in gold in order to survive.  Wouldn’t that be something!  Then we wouldn’t need to worry about inflation because we would be using REAL money again!

Or maybe this strategy blows up in our face… who knows.  We examine the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) in more detail in our book “The Individual is Rising” – you can get it here.

So what is college for anyway?  As best I can tell, people go to college to receive a degree that says they went to college.  Then they try to get a job where they can sit behind a desk all day.  That’s pretty much it.  I suspect there was a little more to it years ago (early-to-mid 20th century?) and of course there are some exceptions – especially in the specialized fields like engineering.

Think about it.  What is the first thing people say when they go to a job interview?  “I have a degree in such and such”.  This is supposed to be a strong selling point for the potential employee… but is it really?  What does having a degree actually tell you about someone?  You can probably safely assume that this person has spent a fair amount of time drinking cheap beer.  I don’t know that you can really deduce much else.  Doesn’t everybody have a degree these days?  Doesn’t the government finance ninety-some percent of those degrees?

Doesn’t sound like much of a selling point to me.

We live in a ‘have’ oriented society – we place a premium on ‘having’ things.  A degree, a nice car, a big house, a fancy wardrobe, you name it.  We tend to link our own self-worth to what we ‘have’.  We shouldn’t do that.  Much more important than ‘having’ is ‘doing’.  What are you doing to make your life better?  What are you doing to make your family’s life better?  But wait, there’s something even more important: ‘being’.  What is the nature of your character?  Are you a kind and strong-willed person?  Can others count on you to be honest?  Do you understand that your self-worth is derived from what’s within?  Do you recognize how powerful and wise you truly are?

Having is nice.  Doing is great.  Being is essential.  Focus on the being and everything else will fall into place.  This is the one lesson I hope my daughter learns from me; any other lessons imparted from me to her will be of lesser importance.  I also firmly believe it is a two-way street… I can’t wait to find out what she has to teach me also!

Back to the present: looks like I have some tasks assigned to me on wife’s nesting list.  It is best not to keep her waiting.

Until the morrow,

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Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

 

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the Great Reset and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com.  The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

The Economy Can Never Fully Recover as Long as This Remains…

By Paul Rosenberg,

government regulations and business

When I was a young man, the older men I admired were the independent businessmen. Being a corporate suit issuing orders to underlings never appealed to me, but being a successful man who controlled his own life and business… that did.

Perhaps as a result, most of my friends are independent business people of one sort or another. Not long ago, I had a notable conversation with one of them, during which he said:

You know, Paul, business used to be fun. I’d take my children around and show them what we were doing, and explain the differences we’d make.

I waited just a beat as he winced and then continued:

Now, I don’t want to drag my kids into my business. Every time I move, there are regulations, permissions, forms to file. It takes up most of my time, for nothing. Business isn’t fun anymore. If I could find something else, I’d get out.

And this is a man who has been in his business since childhood, who loves to tell stories about it, and who used to enjoy his work immensely. If this guy is looking for the exit, the problem is dire.

It’s pretty obvious why

I have limited faith in government statistics, but there are a few informative ones on this subject:

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) recently reported that the annual cost of complying with government regulations is more than one trillion dollars per year and has been since 2005.

It goes on to report that big businesses (500+ employees), pay about $7,550 per employee to comply with the regulations. Small businesses, on the other hand (up to 20 employees) pay about $10,600 for every person they employ. And this is just one reason why small, independent businesses are being swallowed up by giant corporations.

Also bear in mind that this is just the cost of compliance with federal regulations. States also impose regulations on businesses. So do most of the county and city governments, especially large city governments.

New rules are produced constantly, and the cost of compliance rises constantly. In the US (and many other places), the cost of doing business has long since become prohibitive.

The Work-Arounds

Clever folks always find ways to get around this insanity, of course. But those ways are extra work and probably help relatively few people.

#1: They get rid of their employees

They find niches in their fields that allow them to escape the endless paperwork, penalties, and senselessly wasted time that comes with being an employer. (If you’ve ever had employees, you know what I mean.)

And what of the workers? Well, some get hired by the few related-industry employers that remain, while others have to take a mind-numbing mid-level corporate job just to pay the bills or get insurance. The rest are living on food stamps, disability, or a dozen other welfare programs.

#2: They go offshore

If your business is not resident where the regulators are, they usually can’t say anything about it.

Not many business people have moved abroad, but lots of them have set up offshore companies and are conducting business on the Internet. These people get their lives back… if they can find a way to make it work.

That is the dirty little secret of offshore companies, by the way: It’s not about escaping taxes; it’s about escaping all that ridiculous, insulting, pointless paperwork. No more spending days crunching numbers at tax time, no filing new reports every time you do something. You just take care of your customers and deliver good product. (Which ought to be enough.)

#3: They pay politicians for protection

Why would anyone donate thousands of dollars to a politician unless they expected to get something in return?

Big businesses pay politicians so that they can make a phone call to get problems that arise fixed. Small businesses can’t afford that, and most small business owners have moral problems with bribery.

Legit Is Dead

Unfortunately, the old “American way” of working hard, conducting honest business, and succeeding is gone, dead, and buried. It may still happen from time to time, but infrequently and off the beaten path.

Not long ago, I found this sign posted on a streetlight in Chicago:

business and government regulations

The sign is right – the old “legit” way of doing business is dead. If you want to get ahead these days, you either try to play a game that is rigged against you, you pay politicians to bend the rules for you, or you avoid the situation entirely.

It seems that the best and brightest – the would-be drivers of the economy – are choosing the last option.

What does that say about where things are going?

Paul Rosenberg

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]