As much as industrious overachievers hate to admit it, sometimes all you need to get rich is dumb luck -- multiple lotto wins, or finding a buried treasure or valuable comic books. Other shortcuts to wealth come with strings attached: marrying rich, divorce, or lawsuits, for example. Still, the point is that while the average American toils for an average wage of $22.59 per hour, according to July data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are the few who made fortunes without much labor. In other words, for the average wage earner to make a million dollars, he or she would have to work 40 hours a week for approximately 21 years. Doesn't it sound easier to buy a lottery ticket?
Most people dream of hitting the lottery just once, but Las Vegas resident Joan Ginther has been a lot luckier than that. Ginther won the Texas lottery four times over the past 17 years, winning $5.4 million in 1993, $2 million in 2006, and $3 million in 2008. Her biggest score came in 2010: a $50 scratch-off ticket that was worth $10 million (10 Shortcuts to Easy Street, Bloomberg Business Week, Nov. 10, 2010).
Truly, why will most of the people struggle all their lives? Answer: we were taught that way. Our parents, our schools, our government teaches us to be employees. Most employees will never be rich. We are taught to be good employees or good professional servants. The United States, as many other countries did, modeled our education system after the Prussian education model. The Prussian Education System was eight years of mandatory schooling that attempted to fully prepare students for the modern world. This educational system instructed students on basic educational concepts, such as mathematics, writing, and reading. At the same time, it also taught things like obedience, duty to country, and general ethics (How public education cripples our kids, and why By John Taylor Gatto).High schools teach economics but no school teaches financial education. The education needed to become financially independent.
The great H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not
“to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States... and that is its aim everywhere else.”
What Mr. Mencken is articulating is the school system is to develop a citizenry of workers so the rich would always have a supply of workers for their businesses and needs. The government also looks at the Prussian system as a system to “to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” American slave owners knew that an educated black population would bring the end to slavery, so they outlawed black slave education. Although education is not outlawed the conspiracy of the rich and powerful is to dumb down the American public. Why do we see people with doctorates going broke in retirement?
No financial education. We let other people, who have no financial education sell us mutual funds within 401(k) plans. Once we give them our money we have no control of investment. These mutual fund companies take their fees and cost before the money is invested because they know the next day the mutual fund may lose a great deal of its original wealth. Ba Da Bing! The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
This is why The Freedom Project Builders are different. We are taking control of our financial education. First we learn how to build and earn. Then as our income grows we learn to invest. We have mentors all the way to the top and we are lucky we have a man like Roger Barnett that is willing to open a business where we could grow our financial education and wealth as opposed to businesses like banks and insurance companies who pay their employees little and take all the profit. The Freedom Project business is a gift. Open it up and fulfill your dreams!
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