When I was young and learned about drawing interest on saved money, I though it a bit unfair that you could make more money merely by having money. Later I learned that the ‘labor-capital’ pairing was the source of most of our wealth. People with capital had to have some foresight to make their capital pay-off and bank failures were still a fresh memory. I felt better knowing that dumb capitalists would not long be capitalists and the smart ones would create wealth for us all, not thru the goodness of their harts but because the game with customers requires win-win strategies.

A capitalist who builds a factory and company to build a product that has no economic market may attract workers but cannot continue after his capital is gone. Foresight is the capitalist’s responsibility.

Perhaps the current mess we are in was an attempt to achieve dumb capitalism—investment returns without risk—returns without understanding fundamentals—returns without foresight. Too many were anxious to think it had been achieved with CDO’a and such.

Investment advice is supposed to bridge this gap but there are all too many anecdotes just now of such advice being worse than useless.

Foresight in an technologically advanced context is hard to achieve. It requires input from several diverse disciplines—from cultures frequently at odds with other.

If I am largely right I have no answer for those many want to save for their old age and children—how do I save my money? I am one of those.