The young are willing "to boldly go where no man has gone before." Sometimes that is an advantage.
My problem is that I see the past, perhaps too well. I learned the wrong things.
I am 72 years old. I have learned lessons that have served me both well and poorly. The lessons that have served me well seem obvious in hindsight. The memories I reflect on in quiet moments are the mistakes. For example, it is a mistake to notice that "to boldly go" splits an infinitive. Hardly anyone cares anymore.
I learned the lesson that is useful to know that in corporate reorganizations and mergers the acquiring company is the winner and the acquired company is a meal, not a partner. I learned that the acquiring company lies about that at first, telling the acquired company that they love the employees and they should stay put. They do value employees, in the way a predator lion loves a fawn it wants to kill and eat later. Experience didn't help me survive there. I was lucky, not smart. The acquiring companies wanted my clients, and to keep them they were stuck with me.
I was a Financial Advisor for 30 years and did not strike it rich. I had a hundred opportunities to get seriously wealthy and missed every one. My experience taught me that bad things sometimes happen to stocks, so I was cautious. I know other people who happened to have worked for companies that did great. Their experience is that boldness works. They might own tons of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla, or Amazon.
Any young middle-income saver who put an investment amount common among such investors, perhaps $10,000, into one or several of these at various times over the past 20 and 30 years, and held them, would now be a multi-multi millionaire. That could have been me, except I was prudent, not bold. I learned from the 1987 crash that bad things happen. I kept diversifying and would sell off positions as they got big. My mistake.
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| Chart of AIG |
I had watched the most admired, cutting-edge companies, ones like Enron, collapse amid revelations of phony bookkeeping. I remember my company's most respected investment analyst write on company letterhead that any Financial Advisor whose clients weren't loaded up with WorldCom should leave the profession because he or she is too stupid to advise clients. WorldCom went bust. American International Group, AIG, was AAA rated and a leader in an innovative way to make endless amounts of risk-free money, insuring risk-free mortgage investments. What a deal! Oops.
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| Chart of Citigroup |
My own employer, Citigroup, helped lead the charge into the quicksand of creating and owning structured mortgages in the mid-2000s, only to collapse into federal life support and bailouts. Its stockholders, including me, were nearly wiped out. I lived it. Unfortunate things happen.
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| Chart of Tesla |
Therefore, I haven't believed in Tesla, a car company that is valued at more than the combined value of all the other car companies in the world. It makes no sense to me. I am stuck in the past. I missed out.
I haven't bought a Non-Fungible Token, a NFT, even as I watched young people strike it rich buying unique, but identified, images identical to images that are available for free. What is the value of that, I wonder? I had watched Beanie Babies go up in value and disappear as worthless. My experience made me miss out.
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| Chart of Bitcoin |
I don't own Bitcoin either. It is a currency invented out of nothing with no guarantee that it can be used for anything useful, for example paying taxes. Bitcoin seemed to me like the magic beans in the Jack and the Beanstalk story. No thanks. It was valued at $4.00 back in 2012. It is valued at $64,000 now. I had $10,000 I could easily have invested anytime around then, just a tiny speculation, why not? It would be valued at about $140 million now. I missed out. I had too much experience with failure.
Ideally, experience makes me wise, but it does not make me bold. Maybe everything is OK and I need to relax, accept the tremendous future, and stay out of the way. But I am stuck with my experiences and I read history. I read how Rome turned from a republic into an empire. I read about Germany in the 1930s. I watched the "Brooks Brothers" riot in the year 2000, then watched January 6 this year. Most troubling, I watch how Republican thought leaders are falling into line, silent or participating, as an antidemocratic Trump replaces Reagan as the central vision of the GOP.
I don't like what I see.
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19 comments:
Ditto.
Sure, a few do well gambling on the latest fad, but the majority typically don't, particularly those who are late to the game. The singleminded pursuit of money is not a particularly good use of one's life. For one thing, it's insatiable.
At least we now know exactly what Republicans actually stand for, they've exhausted all their absurd economic and social arguments and now are left with a final defining trademark: white supremacy.
We can actually thank Regressives for one thing. Critical Race Theory has left academia and become part of the popular vernacular.
One step forward...
The young are boldly going ever deeper into a virtual (i.e. imaginary) reality. The problem is that it's not even their own imagination. Non Fungible Tokens and Bitcoin are symptoms: imaginary assets and imaginary money.
This immersion in an unreal world could account to some extent for their willingness to engage in remote slaughter with drones and/or swallow the lies of a psychotic demagogue.
I had a job offer to work at Apple in 1980. I went to Xerox instead.
In 1982 I had a job offer to work at Sun Microsystems. I picked a different startup that you’ve never heard of instead. When Sun went public, I would have made $2.5 million if I had taken that job at Sun.
I think it was Yogi Berra who said, “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.“
And another saying I like: Neither great intelligence nor hard work is any substitutes for blind dumb luck.
Terms like “white supremacy” get thrown around a lot these days. Challenge the use of the term, and the attempt will be to silence you by accusing you of “racism.” Most Americans hate these woke tactics.
Republicans will be happy to hang Critical Race Theory like a millstone around the necks of the Democrats. Some Democrats seem to want to help the Republicans do it. Many polls have demonstrated that promoting CRT will not be a winning strategy for the Democrats, despite what some progressives think.
Tuesday in Virginia will be an interesting test case.
How much more real are dollars compared to bitcoins? Any currency you can think of exists now as numbers stored inside a computer somewhere.
If something like a Carrington Event knocks out electricity worldwide for a few years, where will you find your money?
I'm 74 Peter and like you, I missed several chances to strike it rich. However, on a higher scale I still have my health, along with a wife of 48 years, 4 sons, 2 daughters and a grandson, all of whom still talk to me. All in all I consider myself a very rich man.
Terms like "white supremacy" get thrown around a lot these days because white supremacists comprise the Trumplican base. They're trying tally the ignorant by fomenting fear and loathing of Critical Race theory, a subject not taught in any k-12 class or school. It's a law school level subject. Of course, that won't stop those who think Trump won the election from believing it.
CRT itself is not taught in K-12 schools. Ideas and curricula derived from CRT are being taught in K-12 schools.
The argument that Mike made is a rhetorical talking point designed to target those who do not know what is actually going on. Either Mike is being dishonest, or he’s one of the folks who have been fooled by that argument.
What "ideas and curricula derived from CRT" exactly are being taught in K-12 right now Michael? As a strong liberal with kids currently in K-12 in the Ashland district (very liberal) I really wish there *was* CRT being taught in in my kids classes. Unfortunately it's just not the case despite what you may be hearing on Fox News or elsewhere. If it was, Ashland would surely be participating in it.
Agreed, Mr. Trigoboff, that too many leftists are either uninformed quaffers of CNN and NYT kool-aid, or disingenuously cast CRT when it suits them as some sort of rarefied “No True Scotsman” lore taught only in post-graduate seminars.
We can all agree that university and post-graduate CRT is not being taught in K-12 public schools. That news is hardly “Japan Surrenders”. Pop-CRT distillations drawn from the likes of Ibram X. Kendi and the 1619 Project, however, are.
K-12 curricula often define racism and oppression as specifically synonymous with “whiteness”, and vice versa. That’s a reductionist, toxic derivation from CRT, which uses race the way its Marcusian parent, Critical Theory, uses class.
Actual “white supremacists” can be contained in a few largish trailer parks. Now it’s trotted out to cover any objection to internimable leftist group-victimhood pity parties. Valuing punctuality and correct math answers are “white” too.
Well, and Asians and Jews, perhaps the “whitest” of all demographics when it comes to realizing the value of strong family, educational and vocational ethics, along with healthy respect for elders, institutions, and authority. How dare they!
Rafael,
In addition to LD’s very relevant and accurate comments, Here’s an article written by an actual teacher about what was going on at his school.
By the way, your assumption is incorrect. I don’t get any of my ideas from Fox News. I think up a lot of them all by myself.
Have you followed what goes on in the classrooms in Ashland so closely that you are sure that none of this woke BS has been introduced? A quick search turned up this, which sounds a lot like the benign public face of wokeness.
When the wingnuts whine about CRT in our schools, what they're really objecting to is the suggestion that our history of slavery, genocide and racial oppression in any way affects our present situation. The only way to ensure that connection isn't made is by not teaching our history. Better to re-write it. We didn't have slaves,; they were guest workers. We didn't slaughter the natives and steal their land: we brought them the blessings of Christianity and capitalism. Our real history is rated R and not suitable for young minds.
Michael, in regards to the first article you linked, I can't speak for all school districts (obviously) but I am certain that there are no "whites only zoom meetings" going on in Ashland as the author mentioned. To the extent that discussions of race and equity are used to divide (and in such an obvious way such as that) I am thoroughly against that.
My wife is a teacher in the Ashland school district, and I have read the second document you linked previously. I am not sure how any of what is described in that document is "woke BS" in my reading and understanding its a pretty straightforward statement about a district trying to embrace an attitude of inclusivity and celebration toward ALL its students regardless of their background. If that document qualifies as CRT or wokeness in your mind, well I guess we just have a fundamental disagreement over what it means to be a decent person in society who wants to respect and include all people.
Lastly, I am glad to hear you aren't into Fox News. The first blog you linked to was well written, and though I'm not in particular agreement with the author on many of his objections or conclusions, I do plan on reading more of his posts.
Rafael,
I have seen and heard about a lot of woke BS that goes on under cover of benign-seeming documents like the one from Ashland that I linked. I will take your word that nothing like that is going on in Ashland.
But the ideology of wokeness contains some really toxic ideas. “Equity,” for instance, when it is taken to mean that any racial disparity can only be the product of racist discrimination.
I teach Computer Science at a community college. Our department has been accused by a woke fanatic administrator at the college of purposely denying our knowledge to our minority students.. You may not be aware of the fanaticism that some of the woke practice, but I have personally experienced it.
It sounds like you and I would agree about a lot. I keep hoping that the sensible people in the middle will eventually rise up and extinguish the fanaticism that’s tearing this country apart, like what happened to McCarthyism in the 1950s.
“ Here’s an article written by an actual teacher about what was going on at his school.”
Great piece Mr Trigoboff.
Scary times.
Wingnuts... Regressive... Gambling... Lucky... Progressive
Let me add a few words and terms that are missing:
Envy... Jealousy... Risk... Intelligence... Investing... Success... Failure
Each and everyone of us has an opportunity to get rich. Just as everyone of us could lose everything.
There are many who strike a balance and end up somewhere in the middle. There are Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, progressives, and even regressives who have done well. Perhaps even non-affiliated and the apolitical. All are present in the bottom segment, too.
As others note, family, friends, and health are very important.
Too often, is too easy to blame others for the lack of personal success.
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