I was having a conversation with a friend by email about my political views (according to the political compass entry here), and I thought I'd put my comments here because they tell a lot more about me and my views. They're modified only slightly to fit in with the journal entry format.
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Re: being like Ghandi
The interesting thing about that political survey is that you don't know where you're going to be positioned before you do the survey. I didn't know I'd be in the same area as Ghandi, and I didn't choose answers that I thought Ghandi would have chosen. I simply chose answers that were reflections of how I felt.
None of the questions were in relation to the gaining of wealth for myself. In relation to the gaining of wealth in terms of business, I'm all for wealth and business being used to benefit humanity. I'm all for people working for themselves and for others, and setting up business or becoming self-employed is benefiting others. I'm against a welfare society, and all for giving and treating people according to what they do (and definitely not for the colour of their skin). Those unwilling to work should be forced to work by the lack of welfare. Those unable to work should be the only recipients of welfare. Taxes should be assigned also to charity organisations, so that people are helped more by charity than by welfare. (There's a certain pride in people that, if they have to attend a charity for their handouts, can provide inspiration to do better for themselves. Those that are anonymously receiving welfare handouts don't have any inspiration, apart from governmental pressure, to do better for themselves. I should know, I used to be a welfare recipient for a few years back in my 20's. I know what it's like, and I know I was lazy and unemployed simply because I could be. If, as government welfare, I received charity vouchers instead, and had to attend charity organisations for my food and household items, etc, I'd be completely embarrassed and would have actually gone out looking for a job instead.)
In relation to my own pursuit of wealth, I have intentions of using it to benefit others. Buying property is ultimately to benefit me and my goals in life (those goals also being related to the benefit of others), but along the way, I'll be providing housing for other people, which is a benefit not just to me. I find that an attractive side effect.
I said on my site that I shared the views of Ghandi, etc. I didn't say I wanted to be like Ghandi, or follow all of his views. I simply follow some of his vews, but not all of them. As a complete assessment, even though many of my own views are not shared by Ghandi (as far as I know), and vice versa, I'm simply in the same political area as he was.
Re: Would I share my wealth with others?
I certainly wouldn't 'share' the wealth in terms of giving my money away, but I'd certainly give to charity organisations that I believe in. If I'm able to, I'd set up businesses that are of benefit to people, and my main focus in life has always been to empower people to become better within themselves. Instead of giving a person money, I'd help them find ways of making it themselves. Instead of giving anything to anybody, I'd help them bring it to themselves.
It's part of my anti-welfare stance, which, thinking about it now, is probably a reflection of how I remember feeling when I was a recipient of welfare. How can I be so against it if I was receiving it for so long? Because I know how anti-inspirational it is to receive handouts for doing nothing. All it does is inspire the continuation of nothing in order to continue receiving 'money for nothing' (except the recipient isn't a famous rock band member receiving 'money for nothing').
I want to write books that help people with their lives. I want to teach people how to do better with their lives.
All along, I've known that the only way I can teach others how to improve their lives is to improve my own. I have to do what I want to teach, so that I know what I'm talking about. I also believe that a major part of what I teach will be centred around 'poverty thinking', which has been a very strong element in my life. It's a major programming block that is hard for anyone to overcome. Poverty thinking creates a life of poverty, and when you're caught up in that trap, it's very hard to break out of it. I want to help people break out of it.
I don't think there's anything selfish in making money for yourself. Regardless of what you might think, the accumulation of wealth will always help others, in so many ways. So even though you don't think you're helping others, you are.
Examples:
– You make money to buy your own house: you pay people to build it for you. If you hadn't bought your own house, that's one less house those people would have been paid for. You've helped them. (It might have saved their business too, as business might have been bad, and you've just helped someone avoid bankruptcy.)
– You make money to buy your own car: your purchase of it has helped the manufacturer, and the salesman, who received a nice commission from the sale.
– You make money to go on holiday: you spend money on your holiday, which helps the economy of wherever you're going, which ultimately helps a lot of people.
And so on and so on.
It's all just a matter of perception.
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