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Deprivation And Hope
At the heart of the Slowlane is a reasonable idea:
stop consuming
.
However, applied within the
SCRIPTED
OS, stop consuming means stop
living. Specifically, start depriving yourself. Settle for less. Lower your
expectations. Defer spending, defer experiencing—vacations, restaurants, movies
—and defer life until retirement.
While the Sidewalker is leashed and collared by consumption and debt, the
Slowlaner is leashed and collared by deprivation and hope. I call it the HOPE,
STOP, and WAIT plan.
Sadly, changing paths does nothing but change your corporate master.
Whereas a Sidewalker is broadly owned horizontally through a variety of
corporations (banks, media, consumer products), the Slowlaner is vertically
owned by just one corporate master. Your new corporate owner? Wall Street.
You see, whenever you put your financial future into Wall Street’s hands,
you’re essentially saying, “Hope and time is my plan for financial freedom.” For
the plan to actually work, think about all the stars needed to align perfectly:
Hope
I have a job—not just a job but a good job.
Hope
the economy gives me that good job for the next fifty years.
Hope
the stock market yields 10 percent a year and doesn’t crash.
Hope
the housing market doesn’t implode and erase my equity.
Hope
I’m alive by retirement.
Hope
I’m healthy.
Hope
the government doesn’t hyperinflate my savings or the currency in
which it is denominated.
Hope
the government can continually fund a bankrupt Social Security
program.
Yes, you are collared by hope, imprisoned by time, and owned by Wall Street.
But the leash is worse. Before you can test the plan, it requires the stingy
leash of deprivation. Every dollar must be pinched, coveted, and invested.
Expenses cut to bare minimums: Cancel the movie channels. Clip coupons. Buy
your wardrobe from Goodwill. Ride the SuperShuttle from the airport to save
eight dollars, even though it adds two hours to your ride. Stop going to first-run
movies and wait for the DVD dollar rental. Stop vacationing. Stop ordering
expensive wine at restaurants. (Restaurants? You shouldn’t be at a restaurant,
dummy. Save that cash; it could be worth $1,000 in fifty years!)
Stop this, stop that. Stop living and start dying.
HOPE, STOP, and WAIT. Sounds great, eh? The people profiting from the
ruse tell you it is. The Slowlane is a multitrillion-dollar industry lickspittled by
famous authors and radio personalities, financial planners, money managers,
and a whole gauntlet of prejudiced parties. Not surprisingly, these fiscal
prostitutes
don’t get rich practicing their advice, they get rich teaching it.
Pick up any book about personal finance and you’re likely to read a 200-page
mind-fuck about being cheap. Of course, these books don’t overtly say, “Be
cheap,” but hide behind slippery phrases like “the simple life” or “frugal living.”
Some bloggers make a living on the entire concept, as if dumpster-diving for
expired meat behind the Safeway is so brilliant. Regardless of the words beating
you stupid, the concept is ridiculous and oxymoronic.
Scarcity does not create abundance
. Replacing fiscal poverty with experiential
poverty is like replacing your dietary protein with carbs and expecting muscle.
And yet millions of people mistakenly believe that the menu of extraordinary
living has “settle for less” listed as an entrée. It doesn’t.
Think about it from the seeder’s perspective. If you sold ten million books on
how to pinch a penny from your ass, do you think you’d care about the stock
market? Likewise, if you had $1 billion under management at your hedge fund,
do you think you’d care about returns?
Win, lose, or draw, you make bank
.
Nonetheless, the beat goes on: One hundred dollars saved every month could
be worth $5 million after fifty years! Inflation? Stock market crashes? Life
expectancy? Survivor biases? Zero percent interest rates? Currency devaluation?
My friends, pay no attention to probable reality because, just like lotteries,
probable reality plays no role in feel-good fantasies! You’re going to be rich!
Sadly, Slowlaners snort this BS like free cocaine in a billionaire’s penthouse.
And once again, temporal prostitution is saddled up and ridden toward death.
There is no freedom without vitality. Six feet under is not freedom, and neither is
a hip replacement and a wheelchair. Time, Wall Street, the economy, the job
market, the housing market, government incompetence—these things are no
better than rolling the dice at Caesars Palace, and at least there you’ll feel like a
king while snagging a free buffet.
Folks, if anyone says you need four or five decades to
earn
your freedom,
click back, close the browser, unsubscribe, or ask for a refund. The
SCRIPT
wants
you to HOPE, STOP, and WAIT because by the time you discover winning at
this crap is like snake eyes at the craps table, it’s too late.
Many who struggle financially have a strong work ethic—the problem is their “hard
work” is being channeled in an ineffective and outdated system.
Which SCRIPTED door best represents your current life path? And will it lead to your
desired dream life?
CHAPTER 11
DISTRACTION: THE MINISTRY OF ENTERTAINMENT
What the mass media offers is not popular art, but
entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food,
forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.
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