Off-topic, apologies if this was posted already: "The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism" was the most popular First Things essay of 2022, and is excerpted on pages 8 & 9 of the annual report here: https://www.firstthings.com/annual-report
Good thoughts. I wasn't familiar with Camden Spiller.
I think about this a lot in terms of guiding my kids, if they too have a penchant for business. My career was launched on the big-city corporate side, but we need to consider the possibility that the path I followed will, in the not-too-distant future, require more or less denying the faith in order to get along.
My thought for my kids up to now has been to suggest siding with the conservative-leaning "local gentry" as opposed to the left-leaning "professional-managerial class". The best way I know of to make money in this fashion is real estate.
But of course, one downside is there's a lower ceiling on rewards, and also on the IQ of who you'll be working with, if you affiliate with the local gentry. For those with bigger aspirations, Aaron's approach here is as good as anything I can come up with.
Aaron didn't say it here, but there's also something to be said for having a business that's not very visible. Which doesn't apply to Musk but does apply to Spiller. A B2B business is generally less visible than a B2C one, and industrial transformers are pretty obscure even by B2B standards. No one knows who makes industrial transformers, probably less than half the population knows what they do, and less than that thinks about them once in a given year. All of this makes it less likely that you or your business will be targeted.
This is the "importance of being unimportant" - boring businesses that take up a very small portion of their customers' spend and aren't in cutting edge technology are often the foundation of enduring wealth creation.
Like this billionaire who just gave to the intellectual muscle behind the Federalist Society:
Great writing, Aaron. I would add, so long as we don't have any kind of Georgist tax policies being passed in the near future, land ownership will be a pretty key form of leverage in Negative World.
One of the problems that comes up around land ownership is passing it to the next generation. If the heirs disagree on keeping it and some want to sell, it can be difficult to make everyone whole financially without a great deal of other wealth. Land prices are so high, it makes it hard to justify keeping it if there isn't a good plan in place to justify it and how it will be productive for the family. Something for land owning patriarchs to think about as they go through estate planning.
Yes, and @Barnard to be clear, I don't think land ownership is a way to *create* wealth if you aren't already wealthy. But once you've made your dent in the world (likely through a combination of slow-and-steady W2 employment with a high savings rate, or some kind of faster concentrated bet on equity in real estate / small business / startups) it's a good tactic for wealth preservation. There's a reason Bill Gates is buying farmland in North Dakota.
Off-topic, apologies if this was posted already: "The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism" was the most popular First Things essay of 2022, and is excerpted on pages 8 & 9 of the annual report here: https://www.firstthings.com/annual-report
Congratulations sir!
Thanks!
Good thoughts. I wasn't familiar with Camden Spiller.
I think about this a lot in terms of guiding my kids, if they too have a penchant for business. My career was launched on the big-city corporate side, but we need to consider the possibility that the path I followed will, in the not-too-distant future, require more or less denying the faith in order to get along.
My thought for my kids up to now has been to suggest siding with the conservative-leaning "local gentry" as opposed to the left-leaning "professional-managerial class". The best way I know of to make money in this fashion is real estate.
But of course, one downside is there's a lower ceiling on rewards, and also on the IQ of who you'll be working with, if you affiliate with the local gentry. For those with bigger aspirations, Aaron's approach here is as good as anything I can come up with.
Aaron didn't say it here, but there's also something to be said for having a business that's not very visible. Which doesn't apply to Musk but does apply to Spiller. A B2B business is generally less visible than a B2C one, and industrial transformers are pretty obscure even by B2B standards. No one knows who makes industrial transformers, probably less than half the population knows what they do, and less than that thinks about them once in a given year. All of this makes it less likely that you or your business will be targeted.
Yes, these sorts of B2B businesses have less visibility for sure.
This is the "importance of being unimportant" - boring businesses that take up a very small portion of their customers' spend and aren't in cutting edge technology are often the foundation of enduring wealth creation.
Like this billionaire who just gave to the intellectual muscle behind the Federalist Society:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3612396-who-is-barre-seid-the-billionaire-who-donated-record-1-6-billion-to-conservative-group/
"Seid was chairman and CEO of Tripp Lite, a Chicago-based manufacturer of surge protectors and other electric equipment."
Great writing, Aaron. I would add, so long as we don't have any kind of Georgist tax policies being passed in the near future, land ownership will be a pretty key form of leverage in Negative World.
One of the problems that comes up around land ownership is passing it to the next generation. If the heirs disagree on keeping it and some want to sell, it can be difficult to make everyone whole financially without a great deal of other wealth. Land prices are so high, it makes it hard to justify keeping it if there isn't a good plan in place to justify it and how it will be productive for the family. Something for land owning patriarchs to think about as they go through estate planning.
Yes, and @Barnard to be clear, I don't think land ownership is a way to *create* wealth if you aren't already wealthy. But once you've made your dent in the world (likely through a combination of slow-and-steady W2 employment with a high savings rate, or some kind of faster concentrated bet on equity in real estate / small business / startups) it's a good tactic for wealth preservation. There's a reason Bill Gates is buying farmland in North Dakota.