Capitalism = working hard + saving money

Bottom picture updated to reflect current events.

Jewish money-lenders during the Renaissance were the first "capitalist pigs." Shylock, the money-lender in "The Merchant of Venice," was portrayed by Shakespeare as being a greedy unmerciful Jew who demanded repayment of a debt with a "pound of flesh." Jewish money-lenders were tolerated but villified.



The Catholic Church forebade money-lending at interest (or usury) and only Jews were allowed to do so. During the Renaissance, Jewish money-lenders of European port cities like Venice loaned money to merchants to embark on voyages to far-off lands. It was a gamble which sometimes paid off if the ships returned loaded with exotic goodies like slaves and spices or precious metals and jewels but the Jewish money-lenders were despised and often cheated of their rightful rewards.

When Amsterdam became Protestant, the Dutch Jews were not only tolerated but were esteemed as businessmen. They prospered, developed complex banking systems and even began to sell stocks and shares in their enterprises (the first rudimentary stock market.)

So how did Jews come to be the first capitalist pigs? By saving money and lending that money to those who had not accumulated any wealth. Till then, the only way that people gained wealth was by force and theft. The aristocrats had gotten rich by looting and coercive taxation. The Jews were the first to become wealthy by their business expertise and not by the might of armies.

The basis of capitalism is working hard and saving money. While others were spending everything they earned, the Jews were being thrifty and socking away some savings until they had accumulated enough to lend to others at interest. "Saving" is still the foundation of modern capitalism.

I grew up in a family that never saved money. Whatever money came in got spent immediately and I lived like that for years when I went out into the world on my own. I never expected to ever become rich by dint of my own efforts. Sure, I dreamed of being rich but somehow never really thought that it would happen. It just kind of crept up on me before I knew what happened.

In my late 30s, I started earning a little bit more money than I could spend and I started to sock some away in a 401(K) and CDs. Then I started to see that I could make more money buying real estate in San Francisco than by just stashing it away in banks. The appreciation rate for real estate in San Francisco averaged 15% a year. I took out all my savings (and paid the penalties for early withdrawal) and invested in a rundown old house and spent about $20,000 (and a lot of "sweat equity") fixing it up. Within 6 months of buying the house, it was already worth nearly double what I paid for it.

Then I used the equity in the house to buy a rundown vacant gun shop. There was a ban on opening new gun shops in San Fran so I spent some more money and turned it into a restaurant. Ten years after buying the house and commercial building, I sold them both for three times more than I paid for them and moved to Oregon with a million bucks in my pocket. Yep, and I reinvested it in real estate. Just in the past two years real estate here has appreciated by 40%.

If you had told me that this would happen 30 years ago in my hippie days, I would have laughed in your face. I didn't even expect to own a house 30 years ago let alone own a house and a farm without a mortgage. Sure, I have a business mortgage - in order to avoid paying capital gains tax with a "1041 exchange," you have to roll over existing commercial mortgages into your new investments. If you don't roll over your mortgage, it is counted as part of your capital gains and you are taxed on money that you owe. Is that nuts or what? Anyway I don't think of business mortgages as debt so much as "leverage."

The moral of this story is that there's no great "secret" to getting rich. Capitalist pigs get rich by not spending all their money but saving some of it and investing it. It's a simple as that.

It was not my spendthrift drunken Irish genes which made my life as good as it is but my sensible practical Dutch and Jewish genes. Starting a hundred years ago Zionists started buying land from the Arabs in what was then known as Palestine. Slowly they accumulated land and eventually they had enough contiguous land to create their own country, Israel.

I don't stick up for Israel because I'm a Jew or because I'm an Evangelical Christian. I was not raised Jewish and I am not a believer in Biblical prophecies. I stick up for Israel because they had a dream just like the first settlers who came to the New World. The Jews saved their money and bought real estate in Palestine and have turned a desert into a garden with their hard work.

Liz, over at "White Trash Republican" posted this song by Oingo Boingo a few weeks ago:

Capitalism

There's nothing wrong with capitalism,
There's nothing wrong with free enterprise.
Don't try to make me feel guilty.
I'm so tired of hearing you cry.

There's nothing wrong with making some profit,
If you ask me I'll say it's just fine
There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
I'm so tired of hearing you whine
About the revolution-
Bringin' down the rich-
When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby?!

If it ain't one thing
Then it's the other
Any cause that crosses your path
Your heart bleeds for anyone's brother
I've got to tell you, you're a pain in the ass!

You criticize with plenty of vigor
You rationalize everything that you do
With catchy phrases and heavy quotations
And everybody is crazy but you

You're just a middle class, socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And you tell me that we've got to get back
To the struggling masses-(whoever they are!)

You talk, talk, talk about suffering and pain
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain
What the hell do you know about suffering and pain?

(Repeat first verse)

(Repeat chorus)

There's nothing wrong with Capitalism,
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism,
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism,
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism!