Intro
The world is in a state of entropy, yet still follows almost predictable, ubiquitous patterns. Wisconsin will inevitably see times of challenge and times of music-filled, carefree firefly summer nights. Our collective wealth will slowly lift and fall, like the waves of a distant sea. At what level do we float today and where will be tomorrow? Will we use our money to build wealth; or will we be convinced to spend it instead? Can we survive through the worst of economic storms to come?
During the bitter hardship of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Wisconsin Senator Bob La Follette, son of the beloved senior senator, said “if we apply the same fundamental principles to the control of our economic life that our forebears applied to the problems of government, we can and will solve the problems of this generation and build for the future, economic security for all the people.”
If Americans cooperated in a fellowship of democracy and capitalism, and accepted the inescapable symbiosis between us and the earth, we could lay a small but sturdy foundation of collective wealth, contentedness and balance. The goal then becomes quite simple and obtainable. And what is the goal? It is, of course, to live in a state with rare preoccupation with material things, or grave anxiety over matters of debt and salary.
Through this humble essay I hope to illuminate a path which leads to eventual bliss. How is it we can find wealth, contentedness and balance?
On putting money into companies you know
The great investment sage, Benjamin Graham, said to virtually guarantee fruitful investing, one need only follow a few simple principles. One of the most fundamental: only buy companies (as stock or otherwise) for less than they are worth. It sounds so obvious, once heard. Furthermore, when contemplating an investment, only put your money into companies you believe in and are familiar with. How else, can you calculate their accurate value? I am often asked how one proceeds to "know a company". Well, there is a small group of companies each of us already intimately knows. We know their potential. These companies are known to you, NOT because you studied a glossy prospectus of charts and confident, smiling CEOs, but because you are acquaintances of the merchants who own the companies. In fact, you wave to them almost everyday - they are your neighbors.
By deploying some of our money in home town enterprises, we help assure their eventual sustained profitabilty. This creates an opportunity to invest in companies destined for greater worth. Mr. Graham would be pleased.
The transfer of wealth through capitalism for the masses
Many believe the “trickle-down” effect of wealth from those at the top to those at the bottom, is inefficient at best and detrimental at worst (tinkle-down economics?). The long-term flow of wealth can be described with what I call the Jade effect. If the jade tree is in balance – energy that is transferred up is sent back down or reserved in the roots when it is in surplus. All is well. The plant thrives and grows strong roots. However, if the organism deploys too much energy in the juicy leaves at the top, the branches sag and eventually break. But, once again, things are in balance. Capitalism for the roots of our society provides a means to reuse the fallen leaves. What is it that defines being an American after all? American: Protects the constitution, fights for liberty, governs though democracy, and earns using capital.
Entrepreneurial Power
In 1931, again during the Great Depression, Wisconsin governor (and Bob’s older brother) Phil La Follette said: “Unless we can solve the problem of the distribution of this abundance – unless we can solve hunger and hardship in all this plenty – we will be actors in the greatest tragedy in history”. He felt, probably rightfully so at the time, the central problem was to increase the “purchasing power” of people who suffered from the inequitable distribution of income. America 2004: the gap between those with abundance and those living with hunger has not been as wide since the Great Depression.
I would argue – that in the America of the 21st century, where the top 1% have more than all of the bottom 95% combined, what we need is not an increase in purchasing power (which emphasizes spending money), but entrepreneurial power (using money to make money!). We must kindle the merchant in all of us. Furthermore, by acting in our own communities first, Americans can circulate wealth between individuals, instead of diverting economic power to distant, faceless corporations. Is this a radical idea?
Local business enterprise uses local funds, local resources, and local pride to do business. In this way, the energy of investment circulates in a stream around Main Street, not out of town to Wall Street. This large pool of investment mass endlessly transfers between people through all of the small businesses that eventually sprout at its banks.
Think Global, Shop Local
Once again, I am not convinced that fostering mega-business, some how eventually trickles down to the average family in a meaningful way. I do believe if we kept even some of the billions we spend at the big, box stores, exchanging in our local economies, we could have an amazing, positive effect on that economy.
Consider that in Vernon County Wisconsin the average person may spend up to $2,000 per year-- year after year, at a certain really big superstore. It is difficult for all of us to resist the siren song of spending. However, if every person in the county, spent just 20% of that amount in, say a local market, it would add over TEN MILLION DOLLARS into the local economy, instead of the coffers of the few. •[2004 data: Wal-Mart Sales $256-BILLION, 4,900 stores, pop. of greater Vernon Co. 30,000].
That amount of money could help sustain a modest way of life indefinitely, through almost any storm.
Moreover, buying local helps preserve ingenuity, creativity, and the arts, by creating a demand for their expression. Shopping for locally grown food allows local growers to keep growing, which keeps the land producing. This, in turn, reduces energy use, pollution, sprawl and misuse of the earth. No one loves the land more than a family farmer.
We have in front of us, our only competitive advantage over Goliath corporations. For, nothing can be guaranteed “Made in America” anymore, except, of course, something made by a neighbor, or by our own hands. These humble creations provide something unique and otherwise impossible: a means for the direct transfer of joy from the creator to the buyer.
Consider just one example of a purchase of area goods: the locally grown tomato - picked that day, nurtured for its taste (imagine that), consuming just a drop of fuel to bring to market. A tomato, no more expensive than the one trucked in, where virtually every dollar paid across the counter stays in the grower’s pocket! Why would we shop any other way?
A Conservative Ideology
Phil La Follette said his beliefs were conservative, in the true meaning of the term. I believe all our goals, can be described with the same word, again in its true sense: “Conservative”: to conserve (as in conserve our earth, and conserve our democracy) and to preserve (as in, to preserve a tradition and preserve quietude).
fin
Professor Glad, in The History of Wisconsin, points out how Wisconsin author-scholars Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac) and Ben Logan (The Land Remembers) both reminded us –in times of distress, there is always hope. We are one with the earth, whose ancient rhythms endlessly cycle. Leopold said: “that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts” we must “simply enlarge the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the land”. He also thought in terms of the perpetual natural cycles of the world, birth and death, decay and transformation to energy, “like a slowly augmented revolving fund of life” [phi, DNA, a nautilus shell, the Milky Way]. The people of Wisconsin have always persevered through a connection and acceptance of the powerful, ceaseless, and wonderful rotation of life before us. What a way to live!
Our community will forever cycle. My hope is that we harness the power of the change itself to invigorate our community with local commerce, simply by loving the earth, each other, and what we can create from it all!
-Anthony L Macasaet, MD
These are the views of Anthony Macasaet and not necessarily that of New American Boulevard LLC, though they generally probably are.
Copywrite 2004 © Dr. Anthony Macasaet, all rights reserved
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