Why Is The Economy Increasingly Found In Fewer Pockets Today?

Or do we have many torn pockets in our midst?

Let us first get over with the definitions of the term "economy".

First, economy is the state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money.

Second, the economy refers to the careful management of available resources.

A third definition that resonates with the majority is that the economy refers to how financial resources flow in and out of our pockets. We have people who are today referred to as the economy in their own right. When a rich guy from the city arrives in the village for the weekend, the neighbours say that the economy has come and knowing what's best for them, they show up with requests to be handed money for this problem or the other.

So why is it that some people have money while others don't?

I will be as diverse as I can get.

We have monied people who genuinely earned what they have because of working for it. There are three ways that one can earn money in this category.

You can earn by giving your time in exchange for a fee or a salary. 90% of earners fall under this section. They can be hired or fired but while at it, they earn money.

You can also earn money by investing money to make you more money. This is when you buy shares or when you buy into a private opportunity. About 5% or so of the people with money fall under this section.

But 1% of the people fall under this final section of our first category. They make money by multiplying time. This is done through many sources of income. When you have multiple sources of income, you can make money while asleep. These are our industrialists, our professionals with multiple revenue streams.

If you are not in any of those sections, then you won't experience the economy in friendly ways.

But there is another reason why you may be finding it hard to grow your involvement in the economy. As we stand, we have both positive and negative strategies for managing market share erosion. Existing market players always find ways of attaining and then maintaining dominance. It is in these strategies that they can make more money. Let us focus on the negative strategies.

Follow this story with me.

A hard-working guy decides to import some machinery to produce some high-demand products. The machines are made by the best manufacturer in that industry. They have passed that country's export standards and certified as such.

Our entrepreneur pays for the machines and hands in the documentation for pre-shipment inspection. Surprisingly, they fail the test. The report indicates that the stuff is of substandard quality. He then orders for a part by part inspection and this yields a 90% quality report with 10% failing because the parts used to assemble the machine were of poor quality. The good news is that those parts can be sourced locally. But our entrepreneur has lost four months so far. Meanwhile, back at home, the full licensing of the products to be manufactured is subject to availing samples produced by the applicant in the absence of the machines that would produce them.

What just happened is plain for experienced people to see but hard for the innocent eye to notice.

The established boys, in this case, managed to work in cahoots with elements within pre-shipment inspection companies to frustrate the entrance of new competitors into the market place.

When other agencies within governments play with some people, they do it in clever ways that make it hard to prove that one was selected against. It could be anyone's agenda provided that there are willing givers and takers.

This example shows us that the economy can be herded like cattle into some few pockets.

And so because of the lessons from the story, many people have resorted to making money whilst insuring their activities against the sabotaging actions of established players. These people have learned to correctly read the market risk and add the extra cost of doing business in their pricing.

This additional cost of doing business is what takes away more money from our pockets more frequently and increases the number of pockets that are locked out of the economy.

The third category of money makers or losers is that where religious followers fall prey to Ponzi-like schemes. Many people give their money to false miracle workers who claim to possess money multiplication abilities. Respectable members of our society have fallen for these open theft schemes. They always end in tears.

The fourth category is the me-too jealous types. Because Peter runs a successful business and he is from your village, that entitles you to copy him even when it is obvious that you don't have the requisite skills. Instead of letting Peter become your mentor, you become his tormentor.

When one person rears chicken, everyone else gets into the business and then end up flooding the market. With bad prices due to an oversupply, everyone loses and everyone's pocket gets empty.

We have a category of lazy people who do nothing at all despite having the ability to produce. They lack self-respect and add to the liabilities of their caring friends and relatives.

Finally, we have thieves. Those that dispossess you of your hard-earned wealth. They vary from the invisible to the violent types and are physically present or in cyberspace. Your wealth is their business and they have a ready market for stolen goods.

All the categories that explain why we have money in very few pockets point to the selfish acts of others. For them to win, someone else must lose out. Fairtrade is about a reasonable exchange of value. Selfishness is the biggest reason for having an empty pocket. Count your close associates and point out those that are not selfish. They are very few of them.