THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT HELP YOU
===================================
If you are really serious about getting out of poverty and achieving Financial Freedom, it will be unwise to expect the Government to do it for you.
Through research, I have been able to identify about 31 types of Government including Anarchy, Communism, Oligarchy, theocracy, Socialism and the more popular Democracy. For the purpose of this Talk, I am going to use the democratic form of Government as a case study.
Democracy can be defined as a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but which is usually exercised indirectly through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed. The representatives may be supplanted by the electorate according to the legal procedures of recall, impeachment and referendum; and they are, at least in principle, responsible to the electorate.
U.S. president Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865), while delivering the popular Gettysburg Address in 1863 is credited to have said that, “…government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
This has long been adopted as an alternative definition of Democracy. Now I want us to look at the prepositions in this definition very closely.
Democracy as a direct self-government is a government OF the people (means that is “made/taken from” or “originated from” among the citizenry by voters electing fellow citizen to office); BY the people (means these same voters do have a say in the activities of the government through their votes because it is on behalf of them); FOR the people (means that the elected government exists to serve and take care of the citizenry).
I don’t intend to bore you any further with too much theory. Let’s leave that to the Political Science students. (smiles)
But why did I do through the pain of dissecting the word “democracy”? It is because I want to dissuade you from looking up to an imaginary “government” for help in wealth creation because it does not exist – at least literally.
You are the Government…
From the definitions above, you can derive that the Government is made up of nothing but people like you with flesh and blood, looking to build a career and a better life for themselves and their families.
The earlier you drop the impression that the government is some form of invisible “supreme being” that has unconstrained power over your life, the better for you and your finances in general.
Look, I am not denying the authority that is vested in the government to do and to undo. However, too many people are counting on the government to make them rich than is realistically possible.
No Government is perfect!
If there were, we would have been living in a utopian society where there is no social class, no unemployment, no crime, awesome infrastructure and what have you.
Instead, what do you see?
Despite the enormous amount of power at the disposal of the Government to use the vehicles of institutions, systems, natural and human resources to achieve a better lifestyle for the people, the Government (especially in the majority of African countries) is failing to deliver in this regards.
Everyone is after his own pocket and his stomach. Hardly will you see a government anywhere in the world that is 100% out for the welfare and enrichment of the citizenry.
Even the communist governments of China and Russia that seeks to create a classless society of abundance and freedom, in which all people enjoy equal social and economic status is seen to have taken the form of coercive, authoritarian governments that care little for the plight of the working class and seeks above all else to preserve their own hold on power. [Encarta]
On the other hand, Socialism, the idea of a society based on the common ownership of property and wealth is NOT the answer to wealth creation. Neither is Theocracy, Oligarchy or any form of Government for that matter.
In my opinion, Capitalism is the Key. The sooner we start weaning society off its dependency on government, the better for everyone, especially those that want to create their own fortune.
Some of the major ways we have been looking up to Government for help are Retirement, Infrastructure and Economy.
✔RETIREMENT:
Gone are the good old days where the hope of a typical graduate was a get a good government 9-5 job, work diligently for 35 years and retire comfortably with Gratuity, Pension and other retirement benefits.
According to my mentor, this advice was only valid during the Industrial age but no longer holds true in this information age. “How do you take care of an ageing population that cannot provide for themselves”, he would ask.
Already, the government organized scam called the Contributory Pensions Scheme is imploding. More frail retirees are protesting on the streets and dying without receiving their hope, the reward for their 35 years of labour. Instead, we hear stories of Pension fraud worth billions of dollars.
Will a Government that wants you to be rich treat it’s citizens with such cruelty? I doubt. If you want to know more about the reason you should not put your trust in a retirement plan, hang on to the end of this event.
✔ INFRASTRUCTURE:
One of the responsibilities of every good government that is out for the interest of the people is to invest in capital projects and enact policies that will provide an enabling environment for business and economic growth in the society.
These include but are not limited to providing constant electricity, good roads, water, schools for proper education etc. Most of these basic amenities are either scarce or not available at an affordable rate for the majority of the society. And it is making life difficult for Entrepreneurs and the common man alike.
If the Government could not live up to it’s basic responsibility, how do you expect them to care more about the state of your personal finance.
✔ ECONOMY:
The Government is responsible for putting proactive policies in place to ensure a thriving economy. You can bear me witness that it has failed severally in this regards… If not, we shouldn’t be hearing of recession, depression, budget deficit, unfavorable balance of trade, bailouts to big Banks and State Governments and so on.
Besides, did you know that Government Bailouts benefit mostly the rich? I guess you don’t.
Perhaps you should pick up a copy of “Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money” by Robert Kiyosaki in order to understand that “the Government will not help you” to become Financially Free.
⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪⏪
In conclusion, I want to recommend the efforts of various Governments around the world to provide a better standard of living for the people. They are not entirely bad, you know.
They have been trying their best through various programs, scholarship schemes, grants, trainings, infrastructure and initiatives. But they can only do so much. The majority of the work has to come from you.
The essence of today’s Frank Talk was to convince you to stop depending solely on your government to make you rich and start taking charge of your finances by acquiring and applying Financial Intelligence. That is the mindset of 7-figure income earners.
Do you have any question or suggestion? I will love to hear from you in the comments below.
[Feel free to SHARE this post]