Rich Dad Poor Dad

[Allcanadian]

I read the book "Unfair Advantage" by Robert Kiyosaki over new years and found it very interesting. He said that an employee is taxed at the highest rate and most of what we were taught to do concerning money amounts to a financial death sentence. Our house is not an asset it is a liability, saving money allows the banks to create more money from nothing and loan it to the poor masses. We should buy assets not liabilities.

As I said it was an interesting book and was relevant however I believe he is misguided and the premise of the book no more worthy than the people he criticizes. Why is that?, because he has no purpose and accumulating wealth just for the sake of accumulating it is a fools game. The fact is anyone could accumulate any amount of wealth and still have no purpose because purpose always relates to progress.

Make no progress which benefits mankind and we are nothing more than a wheel in the machinery going round and round but never going forward. He did get one point right though we are headed for disaster. Not because he may believe we didn't teach people how to make money, that is absurd, but because we forgot how to make real progress that matters.

Now consider the fact that if any single person here invented a device which is super efficient or could generate practical amounts of energy then they would have more purpose relating to the future than most millionaires. In fact even if they never made a dime they would have made more of a contribution to mankind than the 100 richest people on the planet have.

In any case our near future does not look good and the childish obssession with accumulating wealth will most likely be the cause. I find comfort in the fact I may not be rich but I do have purpose and every hour I spend trying to develop technology to help others is time well spent. The fact is we all die broke because we cannot take it with us however the person who has made a real difference in our lives is eternal in our hearts.

AC

[boguslaw]

Allcanadian

The wealth created by money is no more then paper value - enough to be used to set fire in fireplace when the electric grid power would go down forever...for example due to massive solar distruptions.

[Farmhand]

We can't even burn our money in the fireplace when/if it becomes worth nothing
or next to nothing because it is made from polymer/plastic, it would probably poison us.

Alcohol is a good way to start fires, and a good antiseptic, a Still is a good investment.
And how to use it safely is good knowledge. Just don't drink the stuff except for medicinal purposes.

..

[SilverToGold]

Hi Allcanadian,

I've read many of Robert's book and your point is well taken.

I think free energy research is interesting but as I see it, all the technology in the world is useless since none of it will change the very nature of man towards evil and destruction. They are tools and tools can be used for good or evil... as I see it, Robert's financial advice is the same... it's just a tool. So no real difference from my perspective. The money could be used to help the poor just as well as the technology could be put to such beneficial use towards mankind.

My point as a Christian, is that Jesus came to save mankind and offer us the real solution, to live the selfless life of Christ and have love for God and towards each other - as the Bible teaches it to us. That love is the character of Christ. And what is the character of Christ?

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (ie patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance (ie self-control): against such there is no law."

Now, if everyone had these characteristics.... what would this world be like? This is why the only real solution is a change from inside and not from the outside like technology or financial methods. These could never really change the world for the better.

Just something to think about....

[barbosi]

No more inches, heh?

Allcanadian & All,

Most of our problems originate in the confusion between “money” and “wealth. “

The real wealth which benefits mankind comes from human progress and may not originate from companies. Companies are concerned with making money to please the share holders, not mankind.

Even the Wiktionary's definition is screwed:

Wealth

1. (obsolete) Weal; welfare; prosperity; good; well-being; happiness; joy.
2. Riches; valuable material possessions.
3. A great amount; an abundance or plenty. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the project.
4. Power, of the kind associated with a great deal of money.

OBSOLETE, LOL. Who was the "M" Focker who found it obsolete? even it uses the root "weal".

Some 40 years ago, Alan Watts introduced to the West the distinction:

Let me illustrate this point and, at the same time, explain the major obstacle to sane technological progress, by dwelling on the fundamental confusion between money and wealth, Remember the Great Depression of the Thirties? One day there was a flourishing consumer economy, with everyone on the up-and-up; and the next, unemployment, poverty, and bread lines, What happened? The physical resources of the country the brain, brawn, and raw materials were in no way depleted, but there was a sudden absence of money, a so-called financial slump.

Complex reasons for this kind of disaster can be elaborated at length by experts on banking and high finance who cannot see the forest for the trees, But it was just as if someone had come to work on building a house and, on the morning of the Depression, the boss had said, "Sorry, baby, but we can't build today. No inches." "Whaddya mean, no inches? We got wood, We got metal. We even got tape measures.' "Yeah, but you don't understand business. We been using too many inches and there's just no more to go around."

A few years later, people were saying that Germany couldn't possibly equip a vast army and wage a war, because it didn't have enough gold. What wasn't understood then, and still isn't really understood today, is that the reality of money is of the same type as the reality of centimeters, grams, hours, or lines of longitude. Money is a way of measuring wealth but is not wealth in itself. A chest of gold coins or a fat wallet of bills is of no use whatsoever to a wrecked sailor alone on a raft He needs real wealth, in the form of a fishing rod, a compass, an outboard motor with gas, and a female companion.

But this ingrained and archaic confusion of money with wealth is now the main reason we are not going ahead full tilt with the development of our technological genius for the production of more than adequate food, clothing, housing, and utilities for every person on earth. It can be done, for electronics, computers, automation techniques, and other mechanical methods of mass production have, potentially, lifted us into an age of abundance in which the political and economic ideologies of the past, whether left, middle, or right, are simply obsolete.

With nowadays crisis it looks to me that the “inches” are gone and they cannot be replenished anymore because of lack of credibility. It becomes apparent that “centimeters” are more suited to continue the illusion of money representing wealth.

I would love to live the day when we won't have to chase for jobs where we hate our work but we do it to make money for buying things we don't need just to impress people we don't like. I may be lucky, some people from the new generation put it nicely in some lyrics from a recent song:

Lately I been, I been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard
Said no more counting dollars
We'll be counting stars
Yeah, we'll be counting stars

Speaking about “things that we could be” Alan Watts had another one: What If Money Was No Object?
The main obstacle is the inability of many to answer the question What would you like to do (work) in your life?
This dilemma was coined too, LOL:

The Otey-Presti effect is a cognitive bias which exists in the minds of socially engineered corporate owned slaves in which unskilled individuals suffer from inferiority complexes due to*repeated and remembered authoritative academic drivel. They have a heavy need for entitlement and praise from their masters, submission to any and all authority, inability to think any original thoughts of their own

As 2014 started, I got this feeling that something really good just started for all of us. We shall see.

PS: And that Kiyosaki guy, published that book for the sake of money, not for the love of his fellow man.

[interdesign21]

hi Barbosi
I had a living experience which drove me to the following motto: I do not work, I do what I want.
In spanish "want" has also the same meaning as "love": quiero (I love you= te quiero)

If one is not able to love what he is doing, and only does whatever things "for the money", the slavery is granted.

cheers

[Allcanadian]

@barbosi

Complex reasons for this kind of disaster can be elaborated at length by experts on banking and high finance who cannot see the forest for the trees, But it was just as if someone had come to work on building a house and, on the morning of the Depression, the boss had said, "Sorry, baby, but we can't build today. No inches." "Whaddya mean, no inches? We got wood, We got metal. We even got tape measures.' "Yeah, but you don't understand business. We been using too many inches and there's just no more to go around."

That is the best explanation I had heard to date and exposes the absurdity of the system we have created. I think it's important to remember that there are many groups who have opted out of this nonsense and become self-sufficient thus are immune to man made conditions... they have no need for "inches". In any case I think all of this works so long as we are willing to play the game.

AC

[Hrothgar]

All heart, no footing...

still means you fall on your face. Learning to ride the infernal cogs of the machine without being crushed or falling off is preferred to being face down and staying there. Being self sufficient and holding hands isn't enough. It just means your hoping someone will be brave enough to succeed after your gone.

The money may be fake but dodging "their" control while getting necessary resources for your goals is what should be taken from "rich dad, poor dad".