OUTSMARTING THE BUREAUCRACY

It is astounding when the best and brightest of a nation’s citizens must use self defense tactics to protect their personal property. The way that it is supposed to work is that what you earn is yours and what someone else earns is theirs. Not in this country. What is yours is what has been legislated as yours. Now your neighbor has as much right to what you earn as you do and he does not have any qualms about using the civil government to extract your wealth from you.

There are consequences in rejecting God’s law. One of those consequences is envy. The wealthy are the constant targets of the lazy and shiftless. Those who have never accomplished anything in their lives want to take away from those who have achieved. The envious desire to destroy the successful or at least bring them down to the gutter where these losers reside. In our day, oil companies are derided for raising the price of their product. The envious talk much about how the oil companies are stealing from them.

Think for a minute about what oil companies do. Oil companies provide gasoline for people to put in their cars and trucks. In other words, they are producing something of value that people can use. How is this associated with robbery? The oil companies are not coercing anyone to purchase gasoline. The individual chooses to purchase this product at the price that it is currently selling at. If the individual thinks the price is too high or he is being gouged, he can refrain from purchasing the product. You never hear these envious people deriding any other industry that raises their prices, like the automobile industry.

The civil government in America does not know what it is doing. The government is clueless when it comes to economic law. In fact, the government does not believe that there is such a thing as economic law. So the civil government creates economic problems and then seeks to remedy what they have caused only making things worse never better. The market is a system that runs best when it is decentralized. Centralization ensures that the economy is run by the incompetent, the bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy is comprised of people who have never run a successful business and are not subject to the market. The thing the bureaucrat fears most is budget cuts. The best way to defend yourself against bureaucratic control is to remain a small enterprise. When you are a small enterprise, you can generally avoid detection by the regulators. When you get to a big size, you are an easier target to regulate.

Even if you become wealthy, it is wise not to show off your opulence. It is better to avoid being seen as wealthy. There are too many envious people in our culture who would love nothing more than to see the bureaucrats take everything away from you. It is better not to let others know what you are doing. Quietly acquire your assets without any fanfare. Stay out of the newspapers. Do not in anyway draw attention to yourself. Go about your business with focus and quietness. It is the safest way.

GETTING IN THE FLOW

The goal of all enterprises should be success. Few people think in terms of achievement but it is essential in all endeavors. This is the purpose of profit and loss statements. This statement is designed to demonstrate objectively success or failure. It is better to be in the black rather than the red. Red ink means that adjustments must be made in order for a business to be considered a going concern. Red ink cannot flow forever without serious ramifications i.e., death of the business. What was the cause of the death of the business? The answer would be it bled to death.

All endeavors begin with the learning curve. This is a period when someone learns about a business. This is where the individual is thinking and conscious of his actions. This is the pre-concept era. This is where the majority of mistakes take place. Mistakes take place because the individual believes that he is going to mess up and then he does confirming what he thought. This period of time is where the individual over thinks. He is overly conscious. In other words, he has not learned how to get in the zone.

Being in a zone is where the endeavor has been fully conceptualized. Zone thinking is characterized by intense focus. Focus is directed to the successful completion of any undertaking. Those in the zone are focused on one result, successful completion of the task. Zone thinking is the opposite of multitasking. Multitasking is trying to do to many things at one time. Those in a zone are single minded. They know what they want and then they go out and make it happen.

Zone thinkers have ice water running through their veins. These individuals have taken the emotion out of what they are doing. These individuals are in a hurry without being in a hurry. Zone thinking is detailed oriented. All details have to be covered for completion. When I was in the Navy, it was drilled into our heads pay attention to detail. Those in the zone have learned to pay attention to detail. Paying attention to detail means that mistakes are minimized. Making a lot of mistakes slows down your progress and you do not have time to make mistakes.

Zone thinkers are mentally prepared for the task at hand. They have seen in their mind’s eye the successful completion of the task. They have played the same video over and over again. They do not think in terms of failing, only succeeding. Zone thinkers are methodical in all that they do. They have developed a system that works every time. They put their system into play in the endeavor that they are currently working on. This system leaves out all superfluous details. The system works because it is based solely on essentials. All non essentials have been flushed out and discarded.

Tasks involve flows or a process. Tasks have steps that must be taken to succeed. Methodically taking the steps one at a time and not leaving out any steps allows one to develop skill and confidence. Trying to short cut the process will not end up good in the long run. Develop a system and then work the system over and over again. Working the system puts you in the zone and you are on your way to success.

THE INDIRECT METHOD

I was sent an e-mail recently where the writer calls himself a Christian agrarian. He believes that he has come up with a system that will overcome inflation. He is blinded by not understanding things spiritually. His example sounds good but it is a version of the direct method which is inefficient in supplying our needs. He thinks that all he has to do is go out to the chicken coop and get some eggs and if he has excess eggs, he can use those to barter.

We live in a complex economic age and barter is a primitive system of exchange. What this Christian agrarian is proposing is a return to the past. He is as all visible thinkers are, tied to the past. They are not forward looking. He is proposing the destruction of the division of labor. The division of labor is based upon a common medium of exchange that we call money. Money allows us to be free from the limitations of barter.

Visible thinkers look longingly backwards to what they think is a simpler life. Actually, past life was not easier, it was hard and arduous. The complex life we live in today is a simpler life than in the past. Today, there is less manual labor and more mental labor. Machinery allows man to build bigger institutions quicker and at less cost than his manual labor can. Manual labor without machinery is using the direct method. The Christian agrarian is proposing a system of poverty. Those who are past oriented are lower class. The future oriented are upper class.

The future belongs to those who believe in looking forward. The Christian agrarian is not relevant. Anything he says can be disregarded. While he may be able to eat eggs, is he also going to make his own shoes? His solution is to go barefoot, that is the direct method right out in the open. Who is going to make his clothing and provide other needs that he has? If he is going to be doing it all himself, he is going to run out of time and energy and he is going to be poorer.

The Christian agrarian does not understand economics nor the indirect method. The indirect method of production as defined by Bohm-Bawerk is using our minds to solve economic problems before going about working on them directly. In other words, the indirect method is another way of saying that the spiritual precedes the physical or the law of cause and effect. The indirect method is a complex way of thinking but one that delivers the goods.

A recent example of the direct method versus the indirect method was in trying to catch a cat to give to a family. We have been feeding feral cats for quite a few years. We are preparing to move and my wife wanted to see that two of these cats have a good home. A widow lady wanted two cats. I told her that we could get them for her. My wife and I tried to capture one of the cats using the direct method that is catch the cat and put her into the cage. We tried this method twice and failed twice.

My daughter had a better plan. Her plan was an indirect method. If animals are blinded they will not fight. This is the reason that a horse has blinders on him. What she did was to put an old t-shirt over the head of the cat so that the cat could not see the cage. The cat did not fight her and she was able to put the cat easily into the cage. When the widow lady arrived with her daughter, she did not think that we got the cat but I told her to look in the cage and there was the cat.

The indirect method worked where the direct method failed. While this example deals with catching a cat, the indirect method works in every situation where it is tried. The indirect method delivers the goods, the direct method is severely limited. The direct method leads to viewing the world with doom and gloom whereas, the indirect method allows us to overcome difficulties. The indirect method is used to fulfill the dominion mandate. The indirect method allows us to subdue the earth.