I must confess that the lorikeet wasn’t the one who told me that. But think abut it. If your economy is doing wonderfully great in its own ownderful way, why do you need to look frantically elsewhere for good projects so that you can reap the fruits of your bountifully astute investments? By the way, I had the optical brand “OWNDAYS” in mind when throwing up the word “ownderful.” This language is rather flexible in that words and expressions can emerge and be quickly recognizable and used in common speech. Whether “ownderful” is one of those remains to be seen, spoken and heard. Back to investing overseas. If you are Toyota and you happen to open manufacturing plants in Canada in order to manufacture Toyotas or Priuses so that Huskies can feel good driving them around, you’re not really investing in the good people of Canada, you’re just expanding your business overseas. If you make an investment, what you are doing is really lending money to someone who thinks he can make more money with the money you lent him so that he can have some scheme to convince other people that they can ride on his way of making more money. And on and on it goes. Which tells me that the capacity for producing more goods or rendering more globally desirable services has been maxed locally and whoever is seeking investment opportunity elsewhere wants to acquire more assets from someone else.
I’ve just listened to Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” series on YouTube, all ten of them. Vol 9 on “How to Cure Inflation” sticks on my mind at the present time. Economics must be a really dreary discipline because it is really, in my opinion, the study of the most humane ways of managing human covetousness. That, of course, is a most difficult if not impossible task. The line in this Vol 9, or perhaps in another of Milton Friedman’s lectures, which stood out the most for me was that people and governments know exactly what to do to cure inflation, but measures are always half-hearted and bring yet another round of inflation, each riding higher than the previous set. This is of course attributable to a lack of “Political will.” “Political will” is yet another hackphrase for lack of good character in a nation at large, for which politicians are to blame. Hearing the most obtuse, idiotic challenges to Milton Friedman at the end of each episode or lecture makes me glad I did not venture into Economics or ended up being an Economics Professor. To me, pouring capital investment elsewhere than your own bailiwick has the same effects as transporting El Dorado back to Spain, or striking the mother lode in whatever gold rush there was in history, whether in the Yukon, South Africa or Australia or elsewhere. You get too much gold chasing too few goods and services, and inflation comes on the heels of too much gold. There is a very visual slide in Vol 9 of “Free to Choose” showing the relationship between too much money, or gold, and rates of inflation. Do watch it, and do watch the entire “Free to Choose” series if you can, and you most surely can. I embed Vol 9 below.
I was reminded of an article I wrote on LinkedIn, and which LinkedIn reminds me was eight years ago, called “A Conceptual Breakthrough for the Prosumer” in which I took liberties with the term “Prosumer” by adding my own definition. Click on the link if you would like to read it. Essentially, a Prosumer is one who produces more than he consumes. If we do venture into making investments overseas, then let us be sure that the monies sent there are helping people become “Prosumers” and let them grow their own thriving economy. When that happens, then let’s expand each other’s assets by doing business which Reciprocates Exponential Value (REV), which is a term I first heard being used by the Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss.
Finally, if you are in Christian leadership, the verse below is for you. Are you making real investments in the people you have the charge of, or just making merchandise of them? Putting your “capital” where you think it will yield more for yourself? Ponder.
If you are considering Capital Flight, step on the brakes. Look around to see how making a genuine investment would better your lot. And the lot of many others. You’re welcome!
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