Samoa has what I reckon is without doubt the best social welfare system anywhere in the world. It simply doesn't have one. I love every minute of it - and I'm deadly serious!
After pinging the Samoan government, the Matai system and the church here for a little while (all tactfully and justifiably of course), it gives me great joy to be able to congratulate the powers that be here for not providing welfare for its poorer people.
For crying out loud, the whole nation is a poor! Samoa is essentially a third-world nation that couldn't pay a pension if it wanted to!
[Pic: A bent Samoan car - needing a little attention!]
Robert Kyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad has been playing with the idea of a global elite. You know, a corrupt ultra rich class that manipulates global finances and other evil things for their own pecuniary gain. The sort of thing that Obama and Bush and every banker and financial guru would call "Those silly conspiracy theories" but which are 100% true of course.
Over the last year or so he has been sharing with the world his teaching about the New Rules of Money in a book released progressively online. It's been a lovely experience watching a high profile author and businessman spill the beans. The book is called Conspiracy of the Rich.
I've laughed every minute that Robert has gone through their tricks and said "Amen, amen!" at 99% of what he has shared. While the big picture of a conspiracy was "ho hum" to a died-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist such as me, his understanding and teaching about money has been very helpful to me in connecting the dots with my own enterprises - paticularly the use of money and issues around interest and interest rates. Whereas previously I saw all debt as an evil, I've now come to see that managed debt and borrowings in a business can be a tool, which used wisely can be as powerful as the Queen on a chessboard.
I think the realities in Samoa have helped turn the coin for me on this one. I've gone from essentially a theoretical stance (based on the Biblical - neither a debtor nor a borrower be, and a father who preached cash for everything all the time) to a much more pragmatic stance that says, when in Rome do as the Romans do. And the faith and biblical thing applies more into the wisdom of individual business deals rather than an absolute that "We must never borrow, period". I also find it interesting that it's only once I've been cashed up and have no need to borrow that I've even considered borrowing for business investment. Previously the only borrowing in business I was capable of comprehending was to get out of a pickle, pay my bills or other poor lending justifications!
So back to Samoa and no Social Security. In yesterday's current reading, Robert wrote the following:
If you've read COR, you know that trying to save poor people only creates more poor people. Every time the government prints more money, the rich get richer and the gap between the rich and everyone else increases. Taxes, debt, inflation, and the cost of retirement go up for the middle class and working poor with every dollar printed, and it makes more sense for the non-working poor to stay poor. Why try and get ahead when it's easier to just let the governemtn take care of you?See where I'm going with this?
Isn't this just what I've been saying all along about giving? Yes I know there's been a Tsunami through here recently and that was terrible and some people need a lot of help, but the danger of giving, giving, giving is that it doesn't build anything. It just perpetuates the dependence. Here the PM and many others have also previously spoken about this very problem.
I was at a business function a few days ago and this sector had received $10,000.00 from the government for the last two years that I could see on their accounts. The comment was made that the government wasn't serious about this sector because they gave $8m to Tourism but only $10k to them. On top of that the PM had asked them "Well what are you going to do about your declining performance?" and this had caused them offence.
If they want it, I will help this organisation in due course. I will help them to understand that they are fools to take $10k from the government as a handout. They have to engage with the government so that the government can do what it's good at - help sectors who want to help themselves. Not just give a handout. As an invitee to the AGM I was curious but quiet about their performance. Reading their accounts, I saw that more than 50% of their grant money had been used on food and beverage on their monthly network meetings. I was surprised but not surprised. OK, I'm about to ping somebody here, so I'll stop! You can guess what I think!
The essence of giving - giving from a government to an organisation, or government to people in need - is an action destined to feed and encourage poverty mentality.
Social Security doesn't exist from the government here, so guess what happens? Young people look after the old people. Families and extended families work together. Villages make rules and enforce social justice in the context of their culture. People are taking responsibility for themselves and their immediate environment. Don't you just love the sound of it?
This is Samoa.
Samoa, you've got some real issues here, but your Social Security system in my book is taken right out of the Good Book, and I love every minute of it!
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