The goal is to spend the golden egg, and not slaughter the goose. It truly is the goal to have a pot of money growing at a rate faster than the income you are drawing off of it, especially if you hope to have leftovers to leave behind to future generations. The “endowment” lessons we learned from Benjamin Franklin when he left money in trust to grow for a 100 years before it was used, gave the university entrusted with the money a valuable opportunity to learn about money. He was a talented teacher. Compounding interest and geometric growth is a mind blowing concept, and one we should not forget! It works in reverse as well in forward! We call that, debt.
In owning assets, and using assets to create more wealth, you nurture and encourage an economy. We do well with small, local economies better than one big federal one. Government should handle the big pieces, to help hold together the states, and their local infrastructure. Every state should have its own flavor and color. We don’t all have to look alike and be one big America. We are a United States of America.
If we need to adjust social security, or retirements, it makes sense that those pension funds own some of the real estate old people live in. Then we get our Social Security payments put back into the system. It’s actually a good thing. Cost of living adjustments are meant to help keep up with inflation. If we can bring products to market for a fair price, and not run up costs, then inflation isn’t a problem that needs to be controlled.
When General Motors got itself into trouble, I wondered why we didn’t just buy each one of those union workers a house with all their pension money. It was much cheaper than providing a government bail out. Let them each own an asset to live in, be proud of, and be a part of their community. It is far better to nurture and let a community take care of itself. It would have been cheaper to buy up the mortgages of the union workers and own all that debt in one managed pool. We have made a mess of this real estate market across the country.
The mortgage market went crazy in 2003. Temptation took over and greed was rampant. At all levels. There is a whole indutry that has fallen in our economy associated with real estate, mortgages, escrow and title, appraisers, termite and handymen, and onto new construction. They are lost jobs, and lost souls as they try to regroup.
It takes a lot to start up a steam engine from a stopped position. It takes a lot of energy to get things rolling forward. The easiest way to make it happen is to focus on where we need to be in 2050 and 2100, and work backwards to what we need to do now. That’s what we call planning!