What About

Trickle up economics?

Clearly, after 50 years of data accumulation, economic studies show that trickle down economics do not work. Of course there is solid logic behind the idea - corporations make more money, they create more jobs - money trickles down, everyone wins. Unfortunately that model does not take into account greed. When corporations make more money, that money trickles up to shareholders first in the form of dividends. Whatever is left then goes to create more jobs - usually low paying jobs that require further corporate subsidy by the state for these underpaid workers in the form of welfare and other social assistance. There is a reason why Wal-Mart is one of the biggest beneficiaries of welfare. This is why the rich just keep getting richer - they bleed the system from both ends.

If it was so easy to bamboozle everyone with the hypothesis of trickle down economics, it should be just as easy to convince everyone of the benefits of trickle up economics. Pay a living wage to all your workers and they have more money to spend on the products and services you produce and that they need. Everyone wins in this symbiotic, sustainable model.

Trickle down economics have a better chance of working if corporations were run to benefit the corporation first, the shareholders second. Unfortunately that is not what happens in real life. Decisions are made to maximize the CEO’s salary bonuses and those bonuses are always tied to shareholder return on investment. This is why we continue to see corporations make short term decisions that maximize profits but actually hurt the integrity of the corporation over the long term. Shareholders and CEOs are not in all it for the long term. Most are just in it long enough to maximize their income until they can find a more lucrative opportunity.

“The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.” - Warren Buffett (b. 1930)

This is Different

In the past, Christmas break has been a time of reflection for me. Chinese New Year is only weeks away and it will mark the end point of my training year and the beginning of another. Right about now is the time when I measure the outcome of my year’s efforts toward mastery and begin setting my plan for the upcoming year. Stating the obvious, this past year has been unlike any other.

The pandemic has forced me to adapt in ways that I have never had to adapt before. Adapt to what? Everything. Nothing is the same, everything is different. How I train, how I teach, how I earn my living, how I acquire my food, how I access healthcare, everything. Heck, the way I walk my dog has even changed.

Yes, adapt to this new world I did. In a year that seems like it has just started and now it is coming to an end, I have accomplished more than in any other year of my life. I accomplished most of what I set out to accomplish and then threw 1000% more onto my plate and accomplished that too. Despite spending most of the year feeling out of control and holding on by the skin of my teeth, I find myself continually looking for, and taking on, more challenges.

I am not sorry to have 2020 being in my rear-view mirror next week, but . . . I have to acknowledge that in a year full of lemons, I have been able to make an awful lot of lemonade.

“If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)

Optimism

The difference between being an optimist or a pessimist is just a shift of perspective. Turning the perspective wheel only a few degrees can significantly change your interpretation of things.

We all have the ability to change our perspective by leaving dogma behind and opening our mind to new ideas. Therefore optimism is largely a personal choice. Polly Positive or Nancy Negative - who are you choosing to be?

Taking control of a situation begins by accepting responsibility for the situation. Every challenge brings opportunity. Change is inevitable so how you embrace and accept that change determines how many degrees your perspective wheel is going to turn, and what direction it is going to turn to.

Responsibility can be daunting but, despite that, it is liberating.

“My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.” - Henry Rollins (b. 1961)

 

Oh the People You Will Meet

The martial arts have given me everything that I hold dear in my life. Kung fu has forged my spirit and made me the person I am today. Of all the benefits the art provides, it is the people it has brought into my life that I value the most. 

I met you for the first time in Greensboro, Alabama in 2008. Our mutual association with Tom Callos brought us together to build a house for a family in need in Hale County. I met a lot of great people because of my association with Tom Callos and the Ultimate Black Belt Test but you are the person who stands out for me.

You exemplify what I value in a martial arts master. There is the undeniable skill and outstanding leadership always on display and then below the surface are the truly exceptional traits that I admire - compassion, kindness, and extraordinary engagement.  I definitely want to be just like you when I grow up.

You have always been generous with your time when it comes to me. From calling me at work to check up on me to having me over for supper when I just happened to be in the neighborhood. I often wonder if you understand what that has meant to me over the years. 

Soke Dave McNeill is turning 80 on Tuesday. In typical Master McNeill fashion, he is celebrating with 800 pushups on Sunday. My students and I will be joining him in his celebration by doing 800 pushups each. Happy Birthday Master McNeill! Thank you for everything you have brought to my life. 

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Brooks Adams (1838 - 1913)