ot; things i believe in…

[scaredyclassic]

I believe in the restorative power of sleep.

[scaredyclassic]

I actually believe in miracles.

[FlyerInHi]

I believe that humans will always be searching for the fountain of youth. The fight for survival.

[FlyerInHi]

Spd, what you’re describing is kind of the situation we have now. People are having to buy assets, such as real estate and stocks, because money itself is not a good investment. The reason they are not investing in factories and other productive uses is because there is no demand. There is demand for infrastructure, but the system to build is dysfunctional.

You can’t bitch about debt in general and expect a return on your money. Money is just a tool to facilitate transactions, but somehow we expect it to provide us a positive return without us doing any work.

Ideally, you want to be part of a minority of savers while everybody else gets into debt. And that would make you a capitalist.

[zk]

I believe in evolutionary psychology.

There are some things that I think should be included in evolutionary psychology but (as far as I know) aren’t.

From what I’ve read, some personality trait differences between individuals are, in evolutionary psychology, attributed to either a) variance around an optimum or b) adaptation to enhance chances of survival/gene passage for an individual.

It seems to me that they could also have evolved in order to enhance chances of survival of a tribe as a whole.

A few examples:

Some people are naturally late to sleep late to rise. Some are early to bed early to rise. This mixture allows there to be some number of people awake and alert and on the watch for predators/enemies/lightning storms/whatever.

Some people are naturally adventure seeking. They’re not content to sit around the fire. These people pushed the tribe to new areas and perhaps found additional resources before it was too late. But you can’t have everybody in a tribe with that trait, because, among other things, that would reduce the social cohesiveness of the group. Also, you need a large percentage of people who are content to hunt and gather.

Some people are natural raconteurs. This helps the morale and social cohesiveness of the group. Somehow it seems that too many of this type wouldn’t work. Perhaps the audience wouldn’t be so captivated (and hence morale so improved) if it was so common.

Some percentage of people are leaders, others followers. Others lone wolves. This has obvious advantages.

Perhaps nature selected whole tribes for the correct percentage of different personality traits. You have these different personality traits distributed in certain percentages such that the odds of survival of the tribe as a whole are maximized. Tribes that had too many or too few of certain types didn’t make it. And that genetic legacy lives on today.

That’s what I believe, anyway.

[spdrun]

No, FlyerInHI: ideally, I’d rather be part of a community where average savings rates are higher than they are now. Makes it a lot more certain that I’d get paid.

People with high debt loads are less psychologically willing to pay quickly, and anyway, I’m not guaranteed to be first in line for payment.

[NotCranky]

Interesting stuff, ZK. So it literally ” takes all kinds”. A lot of dominant personality traits don’t make sense at face value, don’t appear to be too functional, maybe even seem to bring about representations of poor examples of living in modern times, but might have this evolutionary underpinning.

Not sure I am a believer in the power of that on personality over childhood experiences, but it is interesting…very interesting.

[FlyerInHi]

Spd, good point. Ideally, all else being equal, populations in developed economies should be saving more to lend to developing economies where there is more demand.

Problem is it doesn’t work that way because of political risks so investors will seek safe heavens. Of course, you also have herd mentality and animal spirits which cause places like NYC and London to become increasingly expensive.

[CA renter]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Spd, what you’re describing is kind of the situation we have now. People are having to buy assets, such as real estate and stocks, because money itself is not a good investment. The reason they are not investing in factories and other productive uses is because there is no demand. There is demand for infrastructure, but the system to build is dysfunctional.

You can’t bitch about debt in general and expect a return on your money. Money is just a tool to facilitate transactions, but somehow we expect it to provide us a positive return without us doing any work.

Ideally, you want to be part of a minority of savers while everybody else gets into debt. And that would make you a capitalist.[/quote]

If labor, rather than capital, were to reap the lion’s share of the surplus value, then people would be more incentivized to work instead of speculate. I hardly think that’s a bad thing.

As it stands, workers are looked down upon. Note all the antipathy toward labor, while the capitalist charlatans are treated as though they are gods who are deserving of every penny they strip from the productive economy. Something is very wrong when a society views productive labor as something beneath capital, but that is the system as it exists today. Many of us participate in this game because it is the only way to get ahead and survive. It doesn’t mean we approve of it.

[CA renter]

[quote=zk]I believe in evolutionary psychology.

There are some things that I think should be included in evolutionary psychology but (as far as I know) aren’t.

From what I’ve read, some personality trait differences between individuals are, in evolutionary psychology, attributed to either a) variance around an optimum or b) adaptation to enhance chances of survival/gene passage for an individual.

It seems to me that they could also have evolved in order to enhance chances of survival of a tribe as a whole.

A few examples:

Some people are naturally late to sleep late to rise. Some are early to bed early to rise. This mixture allows there to be some number of people awake and alert and on the watch for predators/enemies/lightning storms/whatever.

Some people are naturally adventure seeking. They’re not content to sit around the fire. These people pushed the tribe to new areas and perhaps found additional resources before it was too late. But you can’t have everybody in a tribe with that trait, because, among other things, that would reduce the social cohesiveness of the group. Also, you need a large percentage of people who are content to hunt and gather.

Some people are natural raconteurs. This helps the morale and social cohesiveness of the group. Somehow it seems that too many of this type wouldn’t work. Perhaps the audience wouldn’t be so captivated (and hence morale so improved) if it was so common.

Some percentage of people are leaders, others followers. Others lone wolves. This has obvious advantages.

Perhaps nature selected whole tribes for the correct percentage of different personality traits. You have these different personality traits distributed in certain percentages such that the odds of survival of the tribe as a whole are maximized. Tribes that had too many or too few of certain types didn’t make it. And that genetic legacy lives on today.

That’s what I believe, anyway.[/quote]

Totally agree with this. Specialization and the division of labor are the keys to survival as a group.

[CA renter]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Spd, good point. Ideally, all else being equal, populations in developed economies should be saving more to lend to developing economies where there is more demand.

Problem is it doesn’t work that way because of political risks so investors will seek safe heavens. Of course, you also have herd mentality and animal spirits which cause places like NYC and London to become increasingly expensive.[/quote]

People aren’t investing in riskier markets and more productive activities because the risk premium has been artificially suppressed. Because of this, investors are forced to speculate on price changes of existing assets because it’s safer than taking a risk on more productive (but riskier) investments.

[flyer]

I believe in having dreams and living your dreams.

As an example, we started privately investing in films a few years ago, primarily because my wife happened to know someone who had written a little vampire story that ended up becoming a worldwide phenom.

Several “advisors” told us not to do it–but it was one of our “dreams,” so, very long story short–we did it, and many projects later, we’ve never looked back.

More than anything, I can’t imagine looking back on a life of unfulfilled dreams.

[CA renter]

[quote=dumbrenter]what use is all the money saved in youthful years to spend in your old age when your bones are weak, you cannot get any action due to biological limitations and you wet yourself every few hours?

This whole thing seems inverted. Shouldn’t we be taking on as much debt and focus on spending that in our youthful years and then work hard in old age to pay for it?
A vacation to Cabo in your 30’s is much more fun than going there in your 70’s.[/quote]

Theoretically, one could certainly make this argument. The problem is that you need money in order to survive in old age. Young people tend to over-consume and take on so much debt in their younger years that they are unable to pay it off and/or have too much of a debt load to enjoy life in the long run. Many are already so strapped by the time they are in their mid-late 20s that they are unable to ever save enough for retirement because they have such a high debt service burden.

Where consumption is concerned, it’s best to set aside money in advance so you can spend it once you’ve saved enough for a particular goal. That way, you can earn interest instead of paying interest to another creditor. Better to be a creditor than a debtor, IMO.

[CA renter]

[quote=flyer]I believe in having dreams and living your dreams.

As an example, we started privately investing in films a few years ago, primarily because my wife happened to know someone who had written a little vampire story that ended up becoming a worldwide phenom.

Several “advisors” told us not to do it–but it was one of our “dreams,” so, very long story short–we did it, and many projects later, we’ve never looked back.

More than anything, I can’t imagine looking back on a life of unfulfilled dreams.[/quote]

You are very fortunate, indeed! 🙂

[flyer]

Thanks, CAR. One of those “right place at the right time” things. It’s been very interesting.

[Author]

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