Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations… The Americans make associations to give entertainment, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books… Wherever at the end of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
I love this quote by Alexis de Tocqueville. It speaks to the principles of private association and mutuality that were so prevalent in 19th century America.
We’ve been talking all week about the historical influences that underpin our new investment membership The Phoenician League. And today we’ll wrap up our discussion by assessing the mindset that was core to the American experiment.
19th century America featured a robust network of mutual aid societies. This is a topic that I’ve only learned about through independent study. My public school textbooks failed to mention anything about it.
What’s forgotten is that mutual aid societies were the backbone of American society before the Welfare State. They provided safety nets just as the Welfare State does today… but these networks were so much more than that.
Many of these networks employed their own doctors full-time. They called them “lodge doctors”. The lodge doctors were always on call for the society’s members. How’s that for personalized medicine?
And that’s just the start…
These mutual aid networks also built orphanages and retirement homes. And they ran job exchanges and trade skill programs.
These items are each critical to civilized society. And they were all handled by private associations in this country.
That’s because Americans knew that it was people in the local community who were responsible for their own civil functions. The government had nothing to do with them. This is what de Tocqueville’s quote above refers to.
And here’s the beautiful part about it all – mutual aid membership was 100% voluntary. Nobody was forced to support these networks. They had to stand on their own merit. And if members didn’t like the direction things were going, they could opt-out at any time.
Compare that to the government model today. We are all forced to support all government programs with our tax payments – even if we don’t believe in them personally.
To me, the big takeaway is this: Private associations have been foundational to the human experience for most of our history. They may have declined in popularity over the last one hundred years or so… but I think we’re waking up to the fact that they are still important.
And that’s why we’ve formed The Phoenician League. We’re taking the lessons we’ve learned from the ancient Phoenicians, the Hanseatic League, and 19th century America’s mutual aid networks, and we’re packaging them all into a modern membership.
The crux of our membership is financial in nature. We have a comprehensive financial training program in place. And we maintain a professional investment portfolio. Anyone can piggyback on the investments we present.
What’s more, we get members plugged into a nationwide real estate network. And we connect everyone with the trusted professionals they need to get ahead financially. CPAs… estate planning and asset protection attorneys… LLC specialists… lenders… brokers… property managers – we can provide introductions to all of them.
We also host members only discussion calls every month. This is a forum where we can share ideas, insight, and strategies.
And we often invite experts in certain fields to join us on these calls. This gives us the opportunity to ask very specific questions and get direct, unfiltered answers.
The Phoenician League’s core goal is to help all members achieve financial independence. We all walk that journey together.
At the same time, our ethos is so much more than that. We are reviving the spirit of private association and mutuality that was once far more prevalent in our world.
If any of this sounds interesting or worthwhile to you, please sign up for our membership’s wait list. You can do so right here: The Phoenician League Waiting List
We’ll be opening our doors to new members for just the third time very soon. And we’ll give everybody on our wait list advanced notice and attention when we do. I believe we’ll be able to offer everyone on the wait list a material discount on membership fees as well.
Looking ahead to next week – I’m planning to attend a traditional Lebanese festival over the weekend. In the spirit of the ancient Phoenicians, I’ll report back to you with my thoughts on the experience Monday afternoon.
Have a great weekend.
-Joe Withrow