What the Labor Battle in Wisconsin Means

The American Dream

America has always prided itself on being the land of opportunity. Anyone, we are told, can become rich. At the very least, there is always room for each generation to rise a little higher on the socioeconomic scale than the previous one.

Over the past twenty years Robert Kiyosaki has attempted to lay out a systematic plan of action for other Americans to “get out of the rat race.” In 2007 Kiyosaki began putting out a series of rambling, repetitive, and badly-organized books called Rich Dad Poor Dad that offered no hope to finding anything in them again since they have no indexes.

It has been Herculean effort of his part, especially since Robert had no college education. Personally, despite my criticism of his books, I think Kiyosaki should get the Nobel prize in economics for his insights. And I’ve discovered it’s in Kiyosaki’s games that his teachings are really learned.

The Cashflow board games

My partner and I have been playing these board games at a nearby library with a guy who likes teaching people about Kiyosaki’s Cashflow games. So far we’ve played Cashflow for Kids and Cashflow 101 (for adults). We haven’t yet played Cashflow 202 (about big-time investing).

The goal of the game is to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills to go with it. To play cash-flow you need to free yourself from the “security” of having a regular paycheck. This is how it’s done.

You begin the game with a small amount of money that you earn as an employee. As you shake a die or dice you go around the board and land on “opportunities” (or sometimes on setbacks that cost you money). Through your decisions about which opportunities to take, you advance in wealth or you don’t. As you play you see that you need to have diverse sources of income to get ahead, and not just a job.

At first, with a little money from savings out of your monthly salary (or your self-employment earnings) you invest in stocks. As your income from investing rises, you begin buying a small business or two that can keep earning money for you even while you are not working full-time in it, i.e., you move from being employed or self-employed to “owning a business”.

As you work your way up in the game, your realize the ultimate goal (in Cashflow 101) is to obtain enough money from your investments in equities and small businesses to buy properties or land to rent, develop, and/or resell. This is how you build a ladder to financial success.

The bottom line

To this day I recall my father’s deep regret at not being able to get a loan from the bank for a piece of property he knew was going to appreciate in value. He was a man with a large family who understood that this property purchase was his big chance to rise above being a self-employed small business owner for the rest of his life.

Like life, Cashflow is a game you learn something from each time you play. As I played the Cashflow games – they’re like Monopoly in that they take a few hours – I saw clearly how to make money and why most Americans cannot.

In order to take advantage of “opportunities” to make money, one has to have to have at least a little bit of seed money saved out of one’s salary or self-employment earnings.

That is what the battle in Wisconsin is about.

Public service employees are the bulk of union members in the United States. Their ranks include many employees with college and graduate degrees. Professors, teachers, nurses, agriculture and forestry professionals, librarians, managers, police and firefighters are among the highest page employees in the United States.

And because of the things I talked about in my previous posts, Are Government Employee Salaries Too High? and The Mortgage Mess – Caused by US Labor Policies? these well-paid employees are virtually the only workers left who can play Cashflow in real life. These people are the last ones to be fighting for a chance at the American Dream.

A lesson from the game

While playing Cashflow the last time, it was clear to all of us at the table that only the very young and unmarried are likely to have the energy, time, inclination, freedom from responsibilities, and healthy bodies to do what it takes to get ahead when starting with little or no savings. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to live in an abandoned shack or warehouse with no heat or electricity while they tap friends and family for money to fund ventures that are lucrative, but risky.

I expect this is why the bulk of entrepreneurs starting new businesses these days are in their early sixties. These are the only Americans with even a bit of savings left after the financial crisis and the handling of that crisis by the GW Bush and Obama administrations. These are the ones with family, friends, they can tap for funds. These are ones who have picked up some of the skills to be entrepreneurs. These are the ones being pushed out of the job market.

Wisconsin is the beginning of the end for the American Dream.

Taking away money from civil servants, especially the educated ones at the top level of the middle class will ensure that America becomes a land of the rich versus the poor. Small businesses and large investments are owned by people who once worked for a living and were able to save a bit of seed money. Most Americans can’t do that anymore.

Taking away government assistance for education, destroying Social Security and Medicare, and chipping away at “entitlements,” I.e., the benefits paid to American workers by their employers, will ensure that Cashflow is a game that can only be played by kids or the very rich.

Adults will be too busy trying to pay the rent.

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