But Please

A friend moaned the other day about his lack of discipline in the face of 'But pleeease Daddy's from his little daughter. All resistance is futile, and she has him wrapped around her particularly little, little finger.

Self-Discipline is something I find much easier than knowing how to navigate through disappointing other people. Not meeting their expectations. Being misunderstood. The tools of financial discipline, in particular, are much easier to apply to yourself than others. Delayed Gratification can just seem nasty. We grow up with very different ideas about money, and have very wildly different tastes and perspectives of priorities. The biggest battle is typically between now-self and later-self. Kids pretty much live in the now-self.

Another friend was working in Bermuda, having grown up in South Africa. He worried that his daughter would think everything came easy. He was from the school of hard knocks. He tried to arrange for a Summer/Weekend job for her as a shop assistant, but the Manager was appalled. 'We don't believe in child labour!'. This was a far cry from my friend Wooly Willy Wilson ploughing up and down the steep hills of Westville on his bicycle delivering newspapers in the early hours of the morning.

There are three big-ticket 'But Please' ways we spend our money that have exploded. The 'now-self' v 'later-self' argument doesn't even apply since the need is obvious. (1) Housing, (2) Education, and (3) Health seem to have gotten completely out of control. We are Price-takers, paying whatever we have to.

Housing, Education, Health

I am a big believer that not every good idea is a good business idea. I also believe the rules that make money work can have horrible side effects when applied in the spaces of Law, Health, and Community. What all these have in common is the ability to be manipulated. When you have 'no choice', prices skyrocket. The thing doesn't actually change. The price just goes up. Particularly if there are lots of loans available for these things because they are essentially valuable services. Value and Price are not friends. Value is personal, emotional and meaningful. Price is just a way of swapping things.

If you want cheaper houses. Build more houses. If you want cheaper quality Education, make more of it accessible. If we want to be healthier, live lives that don't make you sick.

These 'But Please' chains are incredibly hard to break, because they are a communal problem. As a community, we have to be able to choose.