Robert F Smith – Self Equanimity http://selfequanimity.com Current Affairs Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:36:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 https://i0.wp.com/selfequanimity.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SE-Copy.png?fit=32%2C32 Robert F Smith – Self Equanimity http://selfequanimity.com 32 32 176655959 So Rich yet So poor !!! http://selfequanimity.com/so-rich-yet-so-poor/ http://selfequanimity.com/so-rich-yet-so-poor/#respond Fri, 20 Aug 2021 01:47:40 +0000 https://selfequanimity.com/?p=1431

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH


Why are we so rich yet so poor? We as black people have reached a spending power of $1.4 trillion, this was in 2019. so the question is how are we so rich yet so poor, we claim there is no diversity,  no equal pay, yet the Richest group of black people on the face of this earth are black people from America.  Even though the richest black man today is from Africa. What is the problem? Some say we don’t retain wealth like we should that everything we make, we just turn right back around and spend it .. is this true?  One of the problems is that, although our spending power has doubled or more than doubled I should say we still own fewer assets. Most black people are doing regular assets and have little to no assets.  Another question is what kind of spending habits do we have since we don’t retain any of the wealth ?  can we use our spending power to create capital???

It may interest people to know that the Blacks in America have more spending power than the entire GDP of these countries

 

  1. Netherlands = $907.05 Billion
  2. Saudi Arabia = $792.97 Billion
  3. Switzerland = $703.08 Billion
  4. Thailand = $543.55 Billion
  5. Poland = $595.86 Billion

Just to let everyone know there is no course in business school titled, “how to be a millionaire” As black people we need to take financial education seriously, otherwise, money will just pass through our hands  

“Unless you are able to have influence over assets and business and enterprises then you are not really participating in a lot of what the American economy is “ – Robert F Smith

 

 

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Wealth, what is it? Wealth and Black people and the transfer of wealth http://selfequanimity.com/ealth-what-is-it-wealth-and-black-people-and-the-transfer-of-wealth/ http://selfequanimity.com/ealth-what-is-it-wealth-and-black-people-and-the-transfer-of-wealth/#respond Fri, 24 Apr 2020 06:30:59 +0000 http://selfequanimity.com/?p=189

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH


According to Investopedia 

“Wealth is an accumulation of valuable economic resources that can be measured in terms of either real goods or money value” 

This is a very fascinating subject because a lot of people swear they have a clue about this but they do not. Our society is full of catchphrases, and these catchphrases have an emotional reaction instead of a logical one, especially in the black community, you hear things like, oh we need to practice group economics, we need to start businesses and it goes on and on. We also have the media being used to confuse us on what wealth is. A lot is demonized that shouldn’t be. Economics is very boring for our race, but spending money and celebrity culture aren’t.

I support the advancement of the media, we are in a very connected world. I also support technology and its advancement. I think technology can help us a lot, it has done amazing things for businesses. 

Let’s start with the problem, the average black child is not taught about hard work from the get-go, they are taught that you wake up one day In your life and you would be a “star”, and being a star comes with the good life, you know spending money, buying all sorts of clothing, this is what they call the good life., but then is it though ??? first of all to be able to spend money like that, means money has to flow like water., no one seems to make that connection. The interesting thing about people in a group is that people tend to do things in common. That being said, by definition alone, culture is rewritten multiple times, so everyday culture is changing, culture is dynamic, and also it is self-correcting, but it has to be initiated by someone else. Again the average black child doesn’t want to struggle, but somehow feels entitled to get money, when that doesn’t happen he or she blames the system. This is not to say or to deny everything that happens to black people as a whole, but the first thing we have to understand is that this is a very selfish world and most people tend to do things for their survival, so what it takes to survive Is what is usually proposed through the culture. There is such a thing called benefit analysis, where what one does must have some sort of benefit for the common good. The average black child wants to be a basketball player, a rapper, a model, an entertainer, very rare do black children want to be anything else. I for one I’m not against what anyone wants to do with his or her life, it is good that one knows what they want to do, but we have to ask the question, why does this happen, why do so many children want to be what they see on TV, and what is the reason?? One thing I can say for sure is, it’s not about what you do, it is about what you can make out of what you do. In anything, you do you can create an industry out if it keeps on making money. You just have to know how to do it, which most people do, not.

      Let us look at a typical example, anyone looks at March Madness????/ well most of the players are black, in an event as branded as the NCAA, you would think at least the players get paid. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet none of the players get paid. They sign a contract before they are allowed to participate in the tournament, the contracts state that they are student-athletes so they cannot get paid.. you would think that since all a black kid wants to do is to be a basketball player, ( among other things) black people would protest this and do something to get this changed, but no that doesn’t happen they are rather encouraged to do this hoping they make it to the NBA in future. The players are not getting paid, they are not even allowed to take gifts or receive a gift from anyone. The only thing they get, when they participate in the NCCA tournament is a scholarship for their education. The funny thing is that black people are satisfied with this. They advise their children to get with the program in the hopes of making it big later in the future. an industry has been created which generating billions of dollars, and black people have no idea, how it functions, how much money it generates, and say hey our children are not getting paid, so our children are going to sit home till they get paid, This is one of the largest forms of wealth transfer in history. This doesn’t tell a lot about “them” it does, however, tell a lot about us, Black people don’t understand wealth, let alone how it functions. There is an institution that followed the same principle, in history…. Ahhhhhhh you guessed it, SLAVERY!!!!.

 

Oprah Winfrey $3.5 Billion

 Institutions of wealth have always been created, they are as old as the civilization itself, these institutions generate wealth for the ones who created them. Slavery was an institution, and if you go far back in history slavery was an institution that generated wealth for someone else, as for the slave, well we all know how that story ends. This is why when free black people became wealthy, they also joined in the institution of slavery, to generate wealth, there were a few black families that owned slaves. Natives also joined in the institutions of slavery where they sold slaves. Institutions are designed that way. All races benefitted from slavery including black people in America. This is just one institution that is designed to make money. Another institution is marriage, as a friend said to me one day “ what does marriage have to do with love “? that was a tough question, marriage is an institution that has at its very core, wealth transfer, if you don’t believe me, study a little accounting and see what happens when one gets married, what happens to wealth, then we have an almighty divorce, this is, in fact, of of the greatest wealth transfer in human history. According to Wokwicz Law Offices, Estates, heirs are expected to receive $30 trillion before the year 2061, Also according to Investopedia $30 trillion is set to change hands in the next 4 decades. Interesting isn’t it? In this piece that I’m writing two keywords stand outlets look at them closely. Industry and institution.

Let’s take a look at the definition of industry and institution according to webster dictionary is 

 

Industry,” A distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises.

 

Institution “ established organization or corporation.

David Steward $3.5 Billion

 

The interesting thing about these two words is that they are sometimes interchangeable. For example, a bank is a financial institution but falls under the banking industry. These two words I would say are key to understanding the concept of wealth, and wealth transfer.

Some common institutions that are industries too are 

 

NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE, WBC, IBF, UFC, just to name a few, billions of dollars are generated from these organizations and generates a lot of wealth to those it serves. 

 

Michael Jordan $1.9 Billion

 

There is always the saying that but black people started with nothing, so, since black people started with nothing, blacks have to “catch up”. As false as this statement is, many don’t realize the implications of it, it is saying that black people started with nothing, so that simply means someone owes black people something. and then the excuse is born  If anyone dares attempts to take black people away from that mindset, black people always say, Oh you don’t know what it is like to be black, starting with nothing. This is why I say it is false, let take a look at what they used to call “Black Wallstreet”. Black Wallstreet. It was a place in Tulsa Oklahoma where black people built that City from the ground up, I will also say it is one of the many affluent black neighborhoods in history, there are many, but I choose this because it is the most common. There was a race riot that destroyed the place, but that is just half of the story, after the riot, Tulsa had so much wealth that it was able to rebuild within a short time. It came up better than before, soon the riot was a distant memory, they chose to focus on what they could do and they were very successful at doing it. Even when laws were made to make it difficult for them to rebuild, they still did. So one will ask, what happened? Well, it thrived for a long time, but as the rules/laws of segregation began to ease, black people started spending money in white establishments, stores, so money that will usually go into the banks in Tusla ended up on Wallstreet, no society, institution, organization, the establishment can survive that. That part of the story is never told because people are always looking for someone to blame. I’m in no way saying the blame shouldn’t be put where it belongs, but black people take that as an excuse and run with it. Lastly, I want to talk about one establishment/organization/institution. 

Jay Z $1 Billion

There is a reason why the catholic church is one of the wealthiest in human history, another rare piece of information which is usually conveniently left out of a conversation, is that the Vatican is also a bank and it runs like a country. This brings me to our institutions the black church, wealth is transferred from black neighborhoods to churches every week. The very people the church is intended to help are oblivious about this whole situation and think that all this is somehow sanctioned by God, which is a talking point from the catholic church. Black people don’t question anything religious leaders tell them, they just go with it. This is one institution that can help black people but chooses not to as long as black people have agreed to stay poor at their own expense, church leaders are going to be rich. Now let us look at a list here, Creflo Dollar, World Changers Church, his net worth, $27 million, the average annual income in his community $29,000,  we have TD Jakes His net worth $18 million, ( the last time I checked )surely these guys have benefitted greatly from the church and started businesses and made money, I’m going to be very generous here, let’s say the money they have wasn’t from the church, let us say that  they made this entirely on their merit. Here is the problem with that, to start a business ( which is the church is no exception) they had to come by some capital, does anyone believe that the church had nothing to do with them obtaining capital? I commend them for doing so, but the problem I have with that is they don’t tell people the truth, 

 

 

Kanye West $1.3 Billion

 

All I’m saying is we need to understand the concept of wealth transfer, especially when it is taking place under our very noses. 

Robert F Smith $5 Billion

In conclusion, I think we are dealing with misplaced emotions. I don’t expect any industry or institution to be fair to me and my children, I cannot force anyone to love or like me, but I won’t blame anyone else for my own failure as an individual or failure as a collective

 

 

Aliko Dangote $8.2 Billion

 

Mr. Aliko Dangote takes the price, with a net worth of $8 Billion, he is the richest black man, in the entire world, He is a businessman from West Africa, Nigeria

A few of us are proud of black success, it is something to be proud of but we all know that black wealth hardly exists in America

 

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