to Retain Wealth
“Believe That You Deserve to be Wealthy.”
You are lost if you do not believe that having money is a good
thing.
You need the self-confidence and focus to follow your dream and
this will be fatally undercut if you have the wrong philosophy of life
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
and money. No amount of effort on your part will overcome a faulty
philosophy. If, deep down, you believe that wealth is a sin or that
money is dirty, or wicked then the first step is for you to correct this
error or give up all hopes of wealth for you and your family.
What is a 'wrong' philosophy with regard to making money?
Anything which could be described as altruistic, socialist,
collectivist, communist or any one of its thousand manifestations no
matter what the label, no matter what the disguise, no matter what the
smokescreen.
Without exception, every self-made millionaire I have met was a
rugged individualist. Most of them despised government, although
many were clever enough not to say so in public. And believe me,
there were approximately zero socialists amongst them. A socialist,
whatever he calls himself, is someone who believes that brute force
should be used to loot from the productive, in order to provide
handouts for the unproductive. No matter how you disguise it, or
make it look fancy, that's the plain truth of the socialist doctrine.
I believe that it is impossible for you to attempt to get rich if you
have some nagging doubt that money is the root of all evil, that
Capitalism is bad or that wealth should be divided up amongst the
needy. You have surrendered the philosophical high ground if you
sign up for any of these positions.
Let me apologise in advance if you find this section a little heavy.
It is my sincere wish that you read this chapter and stay with me.
Later chapters are far easier.
The teachings I produce in order to help people have a better life
aren't merely plucked from the air, randomly. My views are based on
a solid, 'from the ground up' philosophy of life - a thing which few
people have in our compromise age of mixed economies.
It is a powerful thing to have a coherent philosophy of life.
Without this, you react to life's events with a series of random, mood
of the moment responses which are often contradictory and self-
defeating. You pick emotions and opinions from an array of ill-
considered viewpoints and hand-me-down beliefs.
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
In contrast, a coherent philosophy empowers you. The correct
thing to do in all situations becomes obvious - it is merely a question
of being strong enough to do it, which is not always so easy!
No thief, no con-man no criminal will ever come close to stealing
the amount of wealth taken from you by force due to bad philosophy.
I am, of course, talking about state theft of your life efforts. If you do
not believe such theft is wrong, your wealth-generating efforts are
doomed.
Laissez-Faire!
My desire and that of many other millionaires is simply to be left
alone to create and produce.
We want our life, our liberty and the property we have slaved to
accumulate. This is ours by right. These are the only real rights
anyone can claim as a human being. Freedom from interference,
freedom to retain the fruits of our labours and freedom from armed
coercion. You should want these rights too.
All other so-called 'rights' which people march and shout for are, in
actuality, the 'rights' to have others forcibly enslaved to their service.
A 'right' to jobs is a thinly disguised 'right' to have the intelligent
and able thrown out of their jobs, by force, in order that the ill-
trained, ignorant and inflexible might have jobs 'on demand,'
regardless of ability.
Freedom from forced (armed) coercion is the most basic of rights.
Without this, no other rights are possible. The only proper function of
government is to protect citizens from forcible coercion, or
enslavement, by another name.
The power of that word enslavement is not diminished by
associating it with the modifier 'partial.'
A man or woman who loves freedom is not prepared to be a partial
slave; labouring under the whip for two thirds of the year in order that
they might be allowed a little sunshine and freedom in the few final
months. If you love freedom, you demand freedom - total and
absolute freedom. If you allow yourself to come under the lash for
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
five minutes in a year, then you acknowledge that the principle of the
whip is acceptable. Your argument then reduces merely to bargaining
with the master about how much whip-free time he will grant you.
Yes?
Unfortunately, you cannot become a millionaire in some distant
cave hidden in the mountains - you live in a certain sort of society and
the way this is run has a dramatic effect on your freedom to generate
wealth. So what is the nature of this society within which you must
operate?
All politicians claim to believe in the rights of citizens to follow
their dream, to do the best for themselves and their family. They
'applaud' individualism. They 'acknowledge' the great contribution
made by scientists and engineers, they 'encourage' greater
achievement and entrepreneurship. This is what we are told by all
political parties.
The reality? Well, that's different. I mentioned that the only proper
function of government is to protect citizens against the use of force.
Our government ( all governments) do the exact opposite. Their prime
method of operation is coercion through force and fear. This applies
to everything the government does, from taxation to issuing of
parking fines. You will comply or massive retaliatory force will be
used against you, not, as would be proper, to protect you.
We have a 'progressive' tax system. As an aspiring millionaire you
need to know and believe that few things can be more evil. Thus,
contrary to government lies and evasions, the strong, fit, hardworking,
intelligent, brilliant, creative people (that's you) are fined in direct
proportion to their contribution. The cleverer you are, the larger your
fine. The more creative and hardworking you are, the more of your
life you will be forced to sacrifice. Struggle, kick, scream or even
argue and you risk sacrificing all of your life's efforts to the agents of
state control.
Where will your money go? The results of your labour? To pay for
an unseen army of beggars, none of which you will ever meet. It pays
their car tax, telephone bill and shopping trip. It pays for anyone,
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
anywhere who cares to stake a claim on the fruits of your labour. You
are identified as a unit of production for the state. A cash-cow. The
fact that they allow you to keep a little for yourself is no
compensation for the man or woman who loves freedom.
Property Rights
What about your property rights? If you aspire to millionaire
status, this means that you are attempting to accumulate property and
expect to retain it. What does our society have to say about your
rights in this matter?
The state holds that you do not have the right to the fruits of your
own labour. They have first claim on that; you get what's left. So what
property rights can you have, in the face of such blatant enslavement?
Why, none, of course! The state can walk right in and confiscate
anything and everything you own. There are dozens of different laws
allowing them to do this.
There can be no individual rights without property rights.
Next, we live in a democracy. Furthermore, this is a political
system existing within a mixed economy, that is, communism in
partnership with capitalism - a ludicrous and impossible
contradiction. There are no guiding principles in modern politics.
There is no particular direction we are heading as a country - we're
just meandering around aimlessly, drifting with the tide of populist
opinion. We have no goals, targets, principles, ethics or direction.
So what are politicians? Simply power-brokers. Backed by force,
they extract life-values from the citizens, and then negotiate with the
long queue of lobbyists who are desperate for free money. The
politicians swap this free money for political power. That sums-up the
current political process in our democracy.
A democracy without enshrined individual rights, is merely gang
warfare - which gang, with the loudest demands can force their ideas
upon the rest of us. Remember, a democracy allows 51% of the
people to vote to send the other 49% to the gas chambers. Extreme,
but it underlines the essential error of believing wholeheartedly in
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
democracy as the perfect system. More realistically, democracy
allows one gang to force the rest of the population to slave for them.
The statists and altruists seek absolute control of your life. The
message is simple, "You are a tool of the state. We demand that you
sacrifice yourself for the good of others. Your ambition, your talents
your energy, they count for nothing. We will confiscate all of these
and give them away so that we might retain power. Rejoice in your
sacrifice."
Finally comes the exaltation, "With rights come responsibilities."
Be very alert if you ever hear this.
Responsibilities to whom? Society? But since society is a
collection of individuals, this becomes responsibilities to other,
unknown and unspecified individuals.
What responsibilities? To feed them? To house them and clothe
their children? To provide them with jobs, cars, telephones and
holidays through the sweat of your brow?
You have no such responsibility and I proclaim it here and now.
If I ever do such a thing, it will be as a limited charitable gift made
by me, directly to the person concerned.
"With rights come responsibilities."
What 'rights' does the statist mean? You should already have the
three inalienable rights previously mentioned - the right to life, liberty
and property, the latter being the right to retain the fruits of your
labour. You don't need the state's permission for these rights. They are
not a 'gift' of the state. They are yours with or without the existence of
a state, let alone their permission.
So what 'rights' do the altruists mean? The 'right' to join the others
at the trough? The 'right' for your share of the free money? The 'right'
to be looked after, coddled and protected by a nanny state? The 'right'
to have the consequences of your errors mitigated at the expense of
other citizens? The 'right' to have ineptitude, idleness and lack of
forethought compensated for by staking a claim in the energy and
talents of others? The ‘right’ to waive responsibility for your own
self-imposed ill-health and have others pick up the tab?
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
I have and desire no such rights and I proclaim it here and now.
Now I sincerely hope I did not bore you with these thoughts. The
statements you have just read lie at the very core of my belief
structure and are, I believe, essential if you want to make and keep
great wealth.
In order to think and act like a millionaire you must have a
warrior's code. A 'code of ethics' if you like, although I hesitate to use
the word because it has been stolen and distorted by the very people
who are trying to grab your life values.
The code of ethics for a warrior is simply one of rational
selfishness.
Again, the word 'selfish' has been twisted into a spitting insult
rather than a noble description of man's highest virtue. For countless
centuries we have been lied to, mislead, cheated and abused by con-
artists whose intent has been to trick us out of our hard-earned life-
values. And they have been successful. Religions and governments
have ruthlessly suppressed the people and forced them to become
unwilling slaves to a higher good. There is no higher good, of course,
merely the desires of the con-men for power and aggrandisement.
The concept of rational selfishness as proposed by Ayn Rand (and
others) is a big subject, and one I will not try to explain here.
However, if you are to become a happy, wealthy and empowered
human being then you must understand the fundamentals.
How To Become Wealthy by Creating Values
Every honest man and woman should earn their own living in the
free trade of values with other humans. One of the best ways to
become wealthy is to create values which didn't previously exist.
Read that statement again, because it encapsulates the rational
selfishness philosophy.
If you merely trade values, then you make a living but do not
become wealthy and empowered. There is nothing wrong with this, of
course, if that is what you want, but creativity is the key to riches.
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
As an example, imagine we are on an island together with ten other
families. Let's trade values. I'll fix your hut roof for two hours, whilst
you husk coconuts for me for two hours. Fair? Sure. No problem.
Tomorrow, I'll fish for my family and your family for five hours as
long as you collect firewood and water for your family and my family
for five hours. Okay? Yes. No problems here. There's nothing wrong
with this way of going on, and we could exist for centuries like this.
In fact this is exactly how primitive societies did (and still do)
operate. But there is no progress.
Why is progress desirable? Because without it we are all still
working for sixteen hours a day in mindless, numbing physical toil -
just as people did for centuries, just as they are still doing now in
many parts of the world. The fact that we swap jobs (trade values)
doesn't actually improve our lives very much apart from a slight
efficiency due to division of labour.
Now, let's create some values. Assume all ten families spend three
hours a day collecting fresh water from the distant mountain stream.
As an 'entrepreneur' you see a way of greatly improving the physical
comfort of your family whilst also greatly improving the physical
comfort of every other family on the island. Indeed, you intend to
create an honest, tradable value which will make you wealthy, but
also make everyone else better off too. This is the essential point
about getting wealthy through creating an honest value - everyone
benefits. Note one vital principle here. You are not motivated by
altruism to improve the lot of others. You are solely interested in
improving your own lot, and that of your family. You are acting
selfishly. How can you act in any other way? This is what gets you
out of bed in the morning.
You are rational, because you know that the only sustainable way
of becoming wealthy is to create something of lasting benefit to
others (an honest value) otherwise they won't 'buy' it. The only
alternative is for you to use force to enslave the population of the
island to your desires, or to con them out of their values.
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
Okay, so what are you going to do? Through your ingenuity, your
creativeness and your honest toil during what should be your rest
period, you are going to create a neat piping system of bamboo cane
which brings water down from the stream right into the village.
You plan, you scheme, you work and sweat and toil. You sacrifice
your leisure and a portion of your life. You take risks - it might not
work. You place yourself in danger - the mountain is steep and
slippery. Of course, you need to conduct a market survey, so you
gather all the villagers together and say this: "For centuries the
women have walked two miles a day to that hill with their water jars
to fetch the daily water for their families. You all know that each
family spends three hours a day in this pursuit. If I could bring you
the same water, here, into the village and you could collect it in five
minutes instead of three hours, would each family work for one hour
a day on various tasks dictated for my family?"
Now of course the resounding answer would be "Yes!" Note the
vital point here: everyone is a winner. Each family gains two precious
hours a day for nothing - absolutely free, for zero effort on their part.
They can use this time to grow more crops, fix up the hut, or whatever
else they want to do. The net effect is that their lives are enriched and
their standard of living rises, all due to your ingenuity, risk, and
discipline.
In return for your effort, ingenuity, skill and daring, you become a
wealthy man. How? Because you now have ten families working one
hour a day for you and so you can 'retire.'
In other words, because you created values for others which they
willingly bought from you, you have freed yourself from the need
ever to work again. There is no money on our island, but money is
merely a token of so many units of human labour.
There are several important points here.
Firstly you did not force anyone to do anything. This is not
slavery. The man who says that modern work is slavery is a fool who
has never felt the lash on his back. In fact you freed the people from
two full hours of soul-destroying donkeywork each and every day of
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
their lives, and the price you charged them for these two hours was -
zero. Secondly you did it for you, not for them, and you're proud to
admit it. You're also proud of your water system. You're trying to add
filtration and perhaps design an automatic coconut husker too.
Furthermore, you are proud of your wealth and your achievements. It
makes you feel good to be alive. You know you created something of
lasting value, and you're receiving the rewards which you are due.
These rewards spur you on to greater efforts which will make you
wealthier and improve the living standard of all of the villagers.
Also, no villager is prevented from following in your footsteps,
and so you act like a hero or heroine leading others on to greater
efforts. Perhaps another villager will be inspired enough to start
making boats in his free two hours - the two hours which you created
for him and gave to him free. Now we can all go to where the fish are
plentiful - by 'renting' his boats, of course. Instead of spending three
hours fishing, we now spend one hour, and pay him one hour in rent.
So we are all better off to the tune of another hour a day, with no drop
in living standards. In other words, we work less hard for the same
amount of fish and fresh water. Or, of course, we can choose to work
the same hours as before and get more fish and fresh water. In other
words, everyone has become wealthier.
How to Destroy Wealth
Note that if the island were to suddenly turn communist, the
following would happen. The islanders would 'seize the means of
production,' in other words, take by force that which you created and
built. In this example they would seize your water system in the name
of the glorious people's collective.
You would be executed or imprisoned as an 'intellectual' or 'enemy
of the state.' People would be temporarily better off in the short-term
because they would now have free water. Looters, thieves and
parasites are always better off in the short term by stealing the values
of others, but they are ultimately powerless because they depend for
their existence on those of productive ability.
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Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich?
Incentive and entrepreneurial spirit is rapidly crushed. Your
neighbour who was thinking of designing and building a boat? Forget
it. He's not stupid. He saw what happened to you and so he just keeps
his head down and his eyes lowered. That coconut husker never gets
invented either. Society atrophies and dies. People mooch for
handouts instead of engaging in creative work. The parasites and
leeches suck and bleed the island dry until all that remains is an
empty husk - rather like some countries I could name today!
Perhaps you are objecting that not everyone is creative and
ingenious. What about the poor dull people, don't they get a break?
Yes, a level playing field is desirable. It would be nice if we all
had equal chances in life, but it doesn't pan out that way. Some
hunters are born stronger and faster. That's not fair, but should we
w