To B3 From The Aging Hippie

Sorry, folks, I haven’t been in communication lately. I have been in such a state of rapt concentration and euphoria over the glorious American institution of presidential primaries. A ho-hum would not even come close to expressing my disdain for this lie-fest to which we have been subjected.
So I’ll change the subject. Lets talk about money, which is what everything is all about anyway at this time in the history of humankind.
Let us discuss “profits!” What are profits?
Well, to begin with, we should not forget that different people have different value systems, and therefore, different definitions of economic situations.
Rich to you might mean having $1,000 in your pocket; it might mean $20 to me or no less than $100,000,000 to that guy in the Jag over there.
Profit is not a specific amount. Profit is how you got it and what you can do with it after you get it!
Simply said, it is what is left over after all expenses are paid…. But!? But, there is a simple profit, and a complex profit, just as in many other things in life, and very much like interest you pay to a bank.
To understand the complexities of profit, you must understand the definition of Capitalism and the definition of “hand-to-mouth.”
The definition of Capitalism is: To make your money on your capital investment. Normally, this capital is never used to live on or to indulge ones self. It is used to invest. Technically, once your investments fail and start eating into your capital, then you are no longer a capitalist, you are a working man.
A capitalist isn’t paid for his time. No one is worth that hourly wage. A capitalist is paid for what he stands for, not really for his capital as much as for his image.
The definition of living hand-to-mouth is having to work for the necessities of life, i.e., food and shelter. I lived for some years in a Greek village where everyone worked such a subsistence existence. Everyone was happy, and everyone, old, sick, handicapped or lazy, was cared for. They all remained satisfied with this beautiful life until American-style advertising arrived to show them all the shiny objects that they were missing out on.
I don’t think we can put the trinkets back into the bottle, or back behind the door of perception. Everyone has seen them, and that has triggered human beings’ most human flaw-- greed.
Profit to a person who already has lots of money is extra; it is what is called discretionary money. This money often becomes capital and then earns money of its own. On a lower scale, it might be called savings; but rich people don’t have savings, savings never make enough profit.
A profit to a person with little money is what is left over after the expenses of the work they have done. Then you have to take that “profit” and try to pay the rent, food bill, electric, gas and car payment.
Real profit is money that you can put in “the bank” and never think about again. It is for your children, or it is for that pet hospital you want to fund when you die. Most of us never get any profits in our lives. We will always be living on what we make. And if there is a tragedy, we are ruined.
I know what you’re thinking… retirement checks? Well, the corporate world is quickly getting rid of those!
So when a conservative politician says that he wants to “preserve the American way of life,” whose profit is he protecting, his or yours?
John McCleary, author of The Hippie Dictionary
To be included in his next book, Common Sense Again

To B3 From The Aging Hippie

A ”business deal” is truly business only if both parties involved are properly compensated for what they bring to the deal. Otherwise, it is robbery.
John 2.7.08 8:40pm

Democracy is compromise! You may be right, but if there are more people who are wrong, then you must live with that. This is rational society! Change it with your intellect, or destroy it with your obstinacy.
John 2.7.08 8:48pm

The conservative definition of freedom is, “I am free to do what I want, but others must do what I want, regardless of the greater good of society.” The liberal definition of freedom is, “I am free to do what I want, and you are free to do what you want, unless it harms society.”
John 2.7.08 9:02pm

The objective in life is not to work most of your life so that you can get to a place where you can live. The objective is to live.
John 2.10.08 8:45pm