Courage When Livelihood is On The Line

 

"How can a society remain free if those with the knowledge to expose fraud do not have the courage to do so?"
-Orrin Woodward

As a kid I used to think that doing good was an easy choice to make. Obviously, when you're young with no responsibilities, full of energy and with nothing to loose ... which ever way you go doesn't have much of an impact. Kids also don't understand right/wrong the same way as adults do.

The individual who's working paycheck to paycheck with a family to feed has much to loose by divulging fraud from his company. While we know what the right thing to do is we also know what is on the line; what will be lost by divulging fraud. 

Money is a curious thing that makes it increasingly difficult for the man that needs it to hold his ground against tyranny. In these critical moments, we forget that life is finite and that we will die either way. Will we die being proud of those decisions we've made or realize our mistake and wished we could go back to make better decisions?

"It has been said that for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing."
-Charles Frederic Aked

The Invisible Economic Influence

The Star Wars prequels were about the pointlessness of the Clone Wars as both side were being controlled by the same entity. Sheev Palpatine had place himself at the head of both sides of the conflict for the purpose of gaining more power... 

A decade before the release of the Star Wars prequels, the Americans were still fighting a war against the Soviet Unions. The Cold War was funded, on both sides, by a web of financial institutions. Those institutions ended up being the true winner of the war as they benefitted regardless of how the war ended.

During his military career (1898-1931), Major General Smedley Darlington Butler said "I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes, and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."

We're within a financial system that, while invisible, is influencing our lives... The below are books that helped me understand this system:

• "1913" book by Oliver DeMille explains what happened in 1913 that helped give more power to the financial system.
• "The Financial Matrix" book by Orrin Woodward gives the name "Financial Matrix" to this financial entity that is all around us. The book explains what "it" is as well as how to navigate within it.
• "Insidious: The Rise of the Financial Matrix and the fall of Economic Freedom" book by Orrin Woodward is a follow-up to his earlier work above and exposes the entirety of the scheme and proposes a solution.

Finance is too important of a subject to be ignored. The better the information we have, the better the decision we can make.

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold."

-Alan Greenspan

Tariffs and New Beginnings

The War on Tariffs will bring changes to the Canadian working landscape. Now, more than ever, is the time to re-imagine ourselves in order to face the challenges ahead of us. To some, this will mean a career change.

"We don't control where we start our journeys, but we do control what we do once we've started. The goal is to take what we've been given and do the most we can with it."
-Chris Brady/Orrin Woodward

It's never too late to re-invent ourselves. We have to do what we must to thrive in this new, uncertain, economy.

Survival mode activated...

Hold off on big purchases as this isn't the time to get into unnecessary debt. If you don't need that new vehicle then wait until such time as a degree of stability has returned.

No one knows what tomorrow will brings but we know for a fact that things are not as stable as they used to be. 

Prepare in consequence.

CEO's Situation Isn't The Same as An Employee

CEOs are quick to point out when they "work on weekends" or "don't take vacations" or "do 16 hour days" somehow thinking this is the path to become a CEO or what any employee should be doing. What they fail to understand is:

• CEO build their dreams while their employees have their own goals or lack thereof. Whether it be consciously or unconsciously, an employee knows when he's building someone else's dream versus his own and act in accordance.
• CEO's paycheck is generally disproportionately higher than most other employees and tied to the company's overall performance creating an incentive not usually shared with employees.
• To some, there's more to life than work.
• When an employee goes above and beyond he's usually rewarded with more work rather than a promotion.

How does someone become a CEO?

Whoever creates their own business or change jobs whenever a higher position is available, at a different company, has a higher chance of becoming a CEO than the person that remained within the same company trying to climb the corporate ladder. The reason why "working harder than anyone else" doesn't usually work is because there's too much competition; everyone else is fighting for the same promotions within the company. 

If a different company has an opening for a higher position, it means they've already looked internally and don't feel anyone is qualified to do it.

"Work smarter" is something that seems to be shared quite often nowadays which, to me at least, means do what you're supposed to do at work without sacrificing your wellbeing.

Buy Magazine to Support the Causes

For the last few months, I've been going through the magazine sections of my local stores and been pleasantly surprised by the selection of science based magazines still available for purchase.

It's no secret that magazines are not as relevant in the digital age however I still find value in buying them when considering the following:

• It helps support the cause while also helping spread the message.
• The, sometime complex, material is simplified for easy reading/understanding.
• Most articles include references that may be useful to someone who wants more information on the subject.
• Information usually comes from trusted/reputable sources.
• More likely to contain the biggest, most interesting, information (as its more likely to sell).

Additionally, there's a sense of "I bought it so I have to read it" that we don't typically get from simply doing research online.

One of the major issues today is that people don't read enough. I know many people that would rather spend their afternoon browsing social media than to pick up anything to read let alone a magazine.

In these troubling times, with Americans pulling back on education in all its forms, supporting science base publication is as important as ever.