AEP 57: Super-Wealth through the right mindset? A breakdown of Silicon Valley Ideology

Is wealth a matter of mindset?

I forced Dan to listen to naval (Naval Ravikant)’s twitter stream/podcast about How to Get Rich Without Luck or Inheritance. Naval’s twitterstorm inspired me to create one of my own, about the real strategies used by the super-wealthy (spoiler: they aren’t available to you). But we spend an hour talking about where these “how to get rich” methods fit into a bigger propaganda and ideology scheme, pushing people towards pyramid schemes; to despise unions, taxes, and collective solutions; and to feel like social failures are their own fault. 

SHOW NOTES

Here are my thirty five ways to get SUPER WEALTHY.

My Dad tells me that everywhere online and on TV there are Indian guys my age teaching you how to be rich (in at least one case, without luck). I won’t be left out! After extensive study, not one but 20+ ways to become not just rich, but super-rich. Here we go.

I am going to confine myself to the great countries of the Anglosphere, where opportunity is more abundant and where the wealthy don’t have to worry about authoritarianism, socialism, or taxes.

1. The first and best way to be wealthy is to inherit wealth.

2. The next reliable way to vast wealth is to win a war with an empire that is in decline, steal its entire treasury, and install a ruler who gives you rights to tax the population.

3. We are talking country-scale wealth here, folks. So, use hundreds of millions of other people’s money to sell a country’s currency short during a financial crisis. If you guessed right, you’re a billionaire. Wrong? It’s mostly other people’s money, it’s cool. (See: George Soros).

4. Own a bank.

5. If you own a bank, charge bank fees, trading fees, mutual fund management fees, etc. These will make you rich, whatever other games you can play with interest rates.

6. Get a big contract with the government – say, to rebuild an occupied country.

7. Get a big contract with the military – supply a military with weapons. Look for countries that are violating human rights: these countries require weapons.

8. Obtain tax relief and government subsidies.

9. Install a monarch in power and obtain rights to the state-owned oil company. The general principle applies to other governments and resources.

10. Own the media.

11. Bank for organized crime.

12. Offer to overthrow an elected government (see: Silvercorp). Mercenaries make good money.

13. Have your friends in government privatize a previously public service: obtain a monopoly over that area.

14. De-fund and destroy public systems to offer expensive private alternatives. Especially good in higher education.

15. Avoid taxes using private jets, wine auctions, and rewriting tax codes.

16. Obtain government protection for intellectual property. It doesn’t matter who created that property, only that you get a government-protected monopoly.

17. Use your political position to personally enrich yourself and your companies.

18. Obtain board positions after being in office.

19. Do speaking tours after leaving office.

20. Start a speculative bubble, obviously. Below this: create fancy financial instruments and use them to create bubbles or suckers.

21. Run a pyramid scheme, of course.

22. Use fancy talk about disruption to seduce investors into giving you money. Lose money year after year while your valuation increases. Being profitable is irrelevant- real wealth is about making promises.

23. Sell dollars for 90 cents while your stock price increases (see: Amazon). Only do this if you want to become the wealthiest man in the universe.

24. Get everyone in the world to work producing content for you for free, then sell their attention to advertisers. By taking over the entire communication infrastructure for the world, you also obtain the entire advertising revenue.

25. Extract precious minerals from the earth, destroying irreplaceable ecosystems and local cultures. (see: gold in Guatemala).

26. Have the goverment create money and give it to you in astronomical amounts (see the recent bailout).

27. Rob banks in a country you occupy. Nice headline by the way, NYT. Thanks for that.

28. Rob banks, part 2.

29. Declare sanctions and steal from the sanctioned country.

30. Leveraged buyout: borrow money, buy a large corporation, and sell its assets – do asset stripping.

31. Be a vulture fund and sue countries in financial trouble.

32. Join the military in a country with a fragile democracy. Wait for the CIA to ask you to launch a coup.

33. Be born into the right social circle. Attend the right schools, join the right clubs. Never do anything to rock the boat. When you are made CEO, do exactly what everyone else does. Two years later, collect your golden parachute. Rinse and repeat.

34. Operate a sexual abuse network with undisclosed intelligence agencies [allegedly. Note this is a high-risk strategy].

35. Start with an inheritance, and use a mafia-connected lawyer to sue the government for hundreds of millions of dollars.

I am planning another twitterstorm about how to stay wealthy once you already are wealthy, so sign up for my EXCLUSIVE SEMINAR and I’ll teach you the secrets that ONLY THE RICHEST PEOPLE ON EARTH KNOW! (And everyone who looks them up).

AEP 56: The India China Border Clash of June 2020, with Carl Zha

The India-China Border Clash of June 2020, with Carl Zha

I talk to the incomparable Carl Zha of the Silk & Steel podcast about the border clashes between India and China in the Galwan Valley. We talked about the many changes in Indian politics with the rise of fascism over the past decade. In the second hour, we go into details of the McMahon line drawn by the British imperialists in 1914 and the 1962 war.

AEP 55: The Meng Wanzhou case part 3 with George Koo

Part 3 of our series on the Meng Wanzhou case

We’ve covered the legal treachery of the Meng Wanzhou case (part 1) and the history of Canadian racism (part 2). 

Now in part 3, a deep dive into 5G technology, Huawei, its founder and Meng’s father Ren Zhengfei, the semiconductor industry, and US sabotage of its rivals, with writer and analyst George Koo. 

This episode is so detailed you might be able to make microchips after listening.

AEP 54 – On the roots of structural racism in Canada: On the Meng Wanzhou case, part 2

The roots of Canadian structural racism

Lord Elgin, who gave Canada Responsible Government, also burned the summer palace in China during the British Empire’s Opium War. 

Sir John A. MacDonald sung the glories of the Aryan Race from the floor the House of Commons in 1885. 

The poem “White Canada Forever” was aimed specifically at the supposed “Yellow Peril”. 

And apparently the claws of the panda have sunk into Canadian society? Dan tried to read all the Canadian media coverage about the case since the BC Supreme court judgement and couldn’t find anything of interest in it. 

In this episode we talk about the relationship between racism and propaganda in the past hundred years of Canadian history, and how understanding what Canada is can help you understand the Meng Wanzhou case unfolding today. Part 2 of the series on Meng Wanzhou.

AEP 53: The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou and what it reveals about how the world works. Part 1, with KJ Noh

The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou Part 1

An executive of one of China’s largest tech companies is detained in Canada accused of violating US sanctions against Iran. This story has many threads, and each one reveals something very important about our world. In Part 1, I talk to activist and writer KJ Noh about the BC Supreme Court’s decision to keep Meng Wanzhou imprisoned in Canada.

The Anti-Empire Project Episode 51: What is Ecological Economics? With Peter Victor.

Ecological Economics with Peter Victor

I talk to Ecological Economist Peter Victor, author of Managing Without Growth, about the idea of the economy taking place within a biological envelope, what is required for market prices to reflect value, and the pitfalls of the valuation of natural capital.

The Anti-Empire Project Episode 50: Iranian Tanker Arrives in Venezuela – quick reaction

Quick reaction to the Iranian tanker’s arrival in Venezuela

A quick 12 minute reaction as the first Iranian tanker (Fortune) arrives in Venezuela with gasoline to alleviate shortages there. Some notes on the cruelty of the US sanctions regime, on why an oil producing country like Venezuela needs gasoline (for now), and what is likely to happen next.

The Anti-Empire Project Episode 49: Beyond the Green New Deal, with Stan Cox

Beyond the Green New Deal with Stan Cox

I talk to Stan Cox about his new book, The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can. We talk about the good aspects of the Green New Deal (especially the New Deal aspects), some of the assumptions that will have to be revised (that good fuels will automatically crowd out bad, that we can grow our way out of the emergency, etc.) and discuss some policies that could actually work.

Anti-Empire Project Episode 48: The Goudreau-Silvercorp Coup in Venezuela, Foiled

The Goudreau-Silvercorp Coup in Venezuela, Foiled

I talk to Maria Victor after the foiling of the May 3, 2020 terrorist plot against Venezuela, which involved the infiltration of American mercenaries by boat from Colombia. One of the mercenaries, Jean Goudreau of Silvercorp, gave an interview just before the attack where he revealed a signed contract with self-declared president Juan Guaido. We talk about this as the latest in a continuous run of coup attempts against Venezuela for the past twenty years.