My goal is to promote plans of action that create wealth. But the world is full of plans. How do you choose among all the options. Well, one thing important to me is that a plan must be internally consistent. A plan that is internally inconsistent or works only some of the time may not be useless, but at the very least I want to be aware of the conditions under which I might expect failure or inconsistent results. That’s why I start with principles.
I blame my desire for establishing basic principles on the mathematician / engineer in me. A mathematician lists his axioms before writing the proof of a theorem. An engineer or scientific researcher lists his assumptions. Every plan for business or government is built on assumptions. If the assumptions are incorrect for the conditions where the plan may be applied, the plan will likely fail.
Mind you, my principles might change if I learn something new or am proven wrong. But I have to start somewhere, and if I list my principles up front at least you will know where I’m coming from.
What’s more axioms, assumptions, and principles are the foundation of our opinions. Stating principles helps keep us consistent and honest. For example, I cannot say that abortion is a completely private decision if one of my principles is that a fetus is a person. On the other hand if one of the principles in my view of the world is that a fetus is just a bunch of cells like a fingernail or a tumor, then I would be internally inconsistent in claiming that an aborted fetus should somehow be treated with more respect than a fingernail or a tumor.
So, if my basic principles are correct and the logic of my plan development are sound, then the plans I advocate for wealth creation are more likely to work than not.
Okay, let me begin…and perhaps to your disappointment, I begin with principles much more basic than whether a fetus is a person.
Principle One: Most people are self-centered and that colors their actions.
You might not think of yourself as self-centered, but would your neighbor think that of you? How often do you do something totally selfless for your neighbor? Do you even go out of your way to get to know your neighbor and what her needs are? Face it, everyone lives their lives in large part to benefit themselves. Even a philanthropist is most likely driven by an ulterior motive: Fame and admiration. Maybe he’s also seeking forgiveness from society for the wealth he has generated for himself. I can’t get into the psychology of philanthropy, but I adhere to my claim that even s/he is self-centered.
I’m sure not everyone will adopt my first principle, but I have seen it proven in my relationships so often that I cannot be convinced that it is untrue. Mind you there might be completely selfless people out there but they have never presented themselves to me, and I have to believe that there are so few of those selfless people that they are not even worth considering as we make plans for wealth creation.
Principle Two: Some things that are good for one person may be bad for another person.
This is just another way of saying that we are all different people with different wants, needs, and abilities. Certainly there are groups of people with similar wants, needs, and abilities, and those people might align themselves with each other. But that faction is very likely to be opposed by another faction with wants, needs and abilities that are totally opposite the first group. I can’t see how this Principles Two is controversial at all, so I am going to assume almost all of you are on board with this one as well.
I will give more principles later, but it is amazing how far you can plan if you are consistent with just these two starting principles. For example, suppose you were to construct a form of government with only Principles One and Two in mind, what might that form of government look like? Well to be sure, you’d want to implement checks and balances on every actor in that government. You wouldn’t want any one actor to get too much power because, according to Principle One, that actor will at least sometimes behave selfishly, and according to Principle Two the results of that selfish behavior will probably adversely affect at least some other members of society.
More coming…