- How many of you would like to be a millionaire? Probably
most of you would, including myself. What would you do with $3 million?
(I use $3 million, as a million doesn't buy what it used to.) If you are
like most people, you would buy a home, furniture, a car (maybe two or
three), pay for you children's education, go on vacation each year, and
invest the rest for retirement. Over the course of a lifetime, it would
take a million or two to do all of this. Nothing is wrong with this, and
many people hope to be in a position like this, though many have come to
realize that such is not possible.
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- Not many years ago, it was possible to accumulate a million
dollars through hard honest, and intelligent work a lifetime. For you older
folks, you can probably remember the "mom and pop" shops down
the street from you home. Families who lived in town owned most businesses.
There was the hardware store, the local green grocers, the stationary shop,
flower shop, auto repair shop, and even the bank was a local enterprise.
When the parents retired, usually the children took over. If not, the business
was sold to another family. Fifty years ago, many of these proprietors
became millionaires, or at least was worth one million dollars in today's
money. It took a lifetime to earn the money, but they were able to do it.
With taxes less, and other taxes non-existent, it was easier to keep what
you earned. If an addition was needed on their home, a local family contractor
was hired; a new car was bought from some local Ford dealership owner;
clothes were bought in the thriving downtown area, too. In short, money
was earned and spent in town-one business helped another business, one
family helped another. This was American life several decades ago, and
this was the American dream, too.
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- Unfortunately, such is not the case now.
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- It's true that there are more millionaires now, but don't
let that fool you. In some ways it's easier to make a million dollars,
but that has more to do with marketing and technology. For example, one
can advertise on TV, and pull in 50,000 orders for a widget. Then, there
are those who claim they are millionaires, but most of it is in the form
of stocks and bond. If they had to 'cash out' their taxes would put them
under the million mark. However, this is getting off the point.
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- For over 100 years there have been very rich people-by
today's standards, billionaires-such as John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan,
the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilts, and others. But it wasn't until about
40 years ago that there was a push by many individuals to control more
and more, and through their companies, they branched out and started franchises.
In the 1950s, Ray Kroch started the Mc Donald's food chain, and in the
1960s, Sam Walton started Wal-Mart. Others quickly followed suit with the
businesses that they were involved in.
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- For now, let's focus on Sam Walton and his start in the
department store business. In the beginning, he was like many other 'mom
and pop shops.' He bought into the Franklin Store chain in Benton, Arkansas.
The fact that he really fit in with the 'mom and pop shops,' was that he
had a wife and children (four by the time that he died). However, his sights
were much higher than thousands of other small business owners across America.
He wasn't satisfied with just one store, nor with two or three stores,
he had to grow bigger and bigger. To own a store in one town wasn't enough;
to have store in all large towns in one or two states wasn't enough, he
had to keep growing and growing, like I giant in some B-rated movie, whereby
he had a Wal-Mart in every major city and town in America. And what was
the result? He became a multi-billionaire. When he died, his wife and four
children all became multi-billionaires. Now, Robard Walton is the wealthiest
person in the world--exceeding Bill Gates--estimated to be worth $65 billion.
All his family members-according to one report-are among the 10 richest
families in the country.
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- The Danger With a Lot of Wealth
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- What's wrong with being a billionaire? What's wrong with
being worth even $100 million?
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- This is where much worth destroys families and businesses.
What would you do with a $1 billion or even $100 million? Now, there will
be variation to this question, but let's keep it to what most people would
do with this kind of money. You now have $100 million. So, you would buy
a bigger house than if you had "only one or two million dollars."
You would have a more expensive car; you would have a TV in several rooms;
you would take two or three vacations a year, and perhaps travel the world.
Of course, you would pay for the finest education for your children (as
if that would help your child's performance). However, you would still
have millions left over, perhaps 90 million. You can only watch one TV
at a time; you can only drive one car at a time; live in one home at a
time. Though each item would be worth more, the money left over would be
still be great. So, what would you do with the additional $90 million?
You would invest it, right? Now, why do you invest your money? So, you
can make more money. People don't invest money to lose money, of course.
There is nothing wrong with investing your hard earned cash, and the bigger
the return, the better.
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- The middle class family that invests money, doesn't have
that much. The little that they invest they hope that it will supplement
the small government pension they get. For a family who is moderately rich,
the hope is that they will be able to live in the same style of life as
when they were working. After all, everyone would like to continue to buy
a new car every few years, go on a vacation for several weeks each year,
and have enough to help their children in life. All of this is good, and
may I add, noble.
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- So, what is wrong with investing many millions?
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- The problem with this is-with proper investing-becomes
10 million, then 100 million, then $1 billion.
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- You still don't see the danger?
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- When someone had only $1,000 to invest, they buy, say,
10 shares of XYZ stock; the more money they have the more stocks they buy,
until the millionaires or billionaires can buy whole companies. In time,
fewer and fewer individuals, or the companies that they hide behind, own
more and more. That is why we have one multi-national company buy another
multi-national company for $40 billions-more money than the GNP of many
nations! Where will it end? It will end when one company owns the world,
and the rest of us will be nothing but slaves, like the slaves that are
producing products for Wal-Mart in China.
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- Money is power, and a lot of money is a lot of power.
You contribute to both political parties in the United States; you offer
them lucrative jobs to politicians are no longer in office -where they
don't have to do much. This way, you get laws passed that benefit your
corporation. You have judges in your back pocket, so if you do break the
law it can be twisted in court in such a way that you get away with it.
Or, it could be that the fine is less than money that you made-so it's
business as usual. After you conquer your own country, you set you eyes
overseas to continue your conquests. Being a big supporter of the powers-that-be,
they think of you when a war is waged, and your huge conglomerate is award
a lucrative contract. If you are really big, and in bed with those in Washington,
you can even have them wage war in your behalf. (All of this is playing
out in Gulf War II.) Of course, the real reason isn't reported in the media,
as people will not fight and die for profits of some billionaire. Instead,
noble words are used such as, 'Freedom, Democracy and Liberty.' Since the
public is more intelligent, our 'leaders' think of new justifications for
war, such as, nation X is harboring terrorists, or leader so-and-so is
a dictator, or this Arab nation has weapons of mass destruction. Now, the
American people will be fighting mad, and are willing to send their sons
to war (or someone else's son).
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- (In all due respect to Americans, more and more are waking
up to the whole farce of Washington instigated wars.)
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- The Super-rich are not like you and me. Oh, they may
look like us, dress like us, and if you keep them on a leash, you can even
take them out to social parties. They think, plan and carry out things
that we would never think of. You can say that they are not even human.
Their minds are like the Reptilians that have been seen and observed by
civilians and military people. And, if you think that I'm joking, then
what kind of mind would OK the manufacture and use of depleted uranium
(DU) weapons? Then lie about it and say that it's safe to use. As a result,
many thousands of our former enemies as well as our own soldiers die an
excruciating death from cancer. That is a sick mind! If you read this in
a science fiction book 20 years ago, it would make a great book, you'd
think that it would never really happen.
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- Why are DU weapons being used?
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- The Department of Defense says that it penetrates amour
better, and it is recognized in the scientific community as such. But it
should not be used, as the negative side is much too dangerous. However,
there are companies that make money from this, and they don't care how
money is made, who suffers from it, or how many suffer. Think of the nuclear
reactor corporations that would have to spend millions of dollars to properly
dispose of it. Instead, they turn this loss into a profit by selling it
to the weapons manufactures who in turn sells it to the government.
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- All this comes down to GREED. There seems to be many
people who aren't satisfied with the amount of money they have. Several
million dollars isn't enough. They have to have more and more-like fish
in a feeding frenzy, they continue to eat, and eat. Well, we know what
happens to fish when they do that. The question is, will it happen to the
Super-rich before they all life on earth? Only God knows-a God that they
don't believe in. But as it's said in the Bible, God is not mocked; they
will reap what they have sown.
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- If we all act like we were at a picnic, there would not
be any greed. Say you were at a picnic with eight people, and someone brings
to the table a nice apple pie that is divided up into eight pieces. Would
you take the whole pie? Would you take half of it? Would you even take
two pieces, when you know that there are eight people there? No (at least
I hope you'd say that). Now, even a Reptilian, or otherwise a greedy billionaire
human would probably take only one piece. So, why on earth would they do
this in the business world? (I know that I'm fruitlessly trying to reason
with those who can't be reasoned with, but at least I tried.) We don't
take two pieces of pie because it would cheat someone out of a piece; we
don't take the whole pie because it would cheat many people out of their
rightful share. So, why do they do this with businesses? By the international
thieves grabbing more and more businesses, they are putting 10s of thousands
of 'mom and pop shops' out of business-each shop being able to support
a family.
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- Looking at this from a Christian (those who believe in
the whole Bible) viewpoint, it is told in the Old Testament not to add
land upon land. God commanded that the size of a farm or business should
be only as big as the immediate family can manage. Why is this? For the
simple reason that you would deprive others of their rightful use of the
land. When you read Bible law, you must find the principle used; then this
principle can be applied to any age, any country, or technological development.
In today's society, we add 'land to land,' by the use of franchises, or
by outright buying more and more businesses.
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- "As the manufacturer of the old board game called
'Life,' has instructions written telling us how to play it, so the Creator
of real life has instructions for us to follow. By all of us reading and
obeying (though we might not understand why), we can all live, enjoy and
receive the bountiful blessing He has for us."
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