Slow and Sustained

It is not a coincidence that it is easier to make money if you are born in America. Compounding isn’t just something that happens on your investments. As a community becomes better at solving problems, the depth of service providers, and support networks expands. 

The ability to make money in America has compounded. Bryan Caplan calls the case for opening borders “Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk”. The world would make more money if more people moved to America. 

Money is made in containers. You need to build an environment that maintains and builds capacity. It comes from simple things soaking deep. 

Like the gradual shift to long-term savings in Australia brought about by “Supers” (pension funds), where over the last 40 years they have collectively moved to being the 4th largest holders of pension savings (About AUD$3.4 trillion in assets) from saving a little more each year. 

To breathe properly while running, you need to build your capacity for abdominal breathing. As you inhale deeply, your tummy comes up rather than going in (shallow breath). You use your diaphragm to create more space. Distance runners will practice bringing their focus back to slow, gradual, inhalations and exhalations rather than panting. Breathing correctly. Running correctly. 

These seem basic, but the basics are what allow the flash. Building muscle memory for the relationship between income and expenses is like gaining control of your breath. 

Slow, sustained, strength building. Best done as a team.

Soutie Begins

When I moved to London in 2008, there were two main obstacles to overcome. (1) Get a Visa, and (2) Get a Job. For the Visa, I used a company called Voyage Relocations. It is possible to navigate the legalities without support. I had friends who did, but I prefer the comfort of someone telling me I have filled in all the forms correctly. As my British wife and I head back in 2020, we are again using support for her Spousal visa process. It was/is nerve wracking sending original documents (degree certificates, passports, driver’s licences). The container for the opportunity to move was Age, Education, Previous Earnings, and English. For the job, I used a company called Acumen Resources. They arranged some interviews, and gave me some support in “How to do interviews”. Like exam technique and time management are the key to Conspicuous Knowledge (education as a signal), getting a job requires performing well in the lottery of CV sorting. I got interviews at McKinsey and Orbis. McKinsey said no, I wasn’t a creative enough thinker. Orbis gave it a lot of thought, but said yes. When I say McKinsey and Orbis, I mean individuals at those companies. Although we talk of the containers we call Companies as if they are people, it normally comes down to single decision makers.

One Foot in the UK, One Foot in SA

Hopping the Pond

I am navigating all the hoops involved in country and continent hopping. I did it in the other direction in 2008, aged 28, when all I had to do was pack a bag and jump on a plane. That, and get permission. In a world with borders and restricted movement, I had to get a work visa based on qualifications, language, age, and proof that I could self-support. Like borrowing money, where you need to prove you don’t need to borrow it. In the other direction, I am a citizen. This time, the lottery of birth works in my favour. My British wife is going through the process of getting a visa. Thanks to Social Media, in many ways I never “left” South Africa. During Lockdown, does it matter if you are reading Sindile Vabaza’s musings on your computer in the Cotswolds or in Claremont? In other ways, I have been a Scatterling of Africa and am returning home. Everything is temporary. The body regenerates every 7-10 years. We choose what we want to keep, what we want to discard, and what we want to add. Reinventing. Reinvesting. This time, I am “not leaving” the UK. I am not leaving the old colleagues, clients, neighbours, artists, dancers, yogis, family and friends who are not defined by the random location they were dropped on this planet.

Putney, London, United Kingdom, 2008

In Your Face

South Africa is the world’s most unequal country. It is also only as unequal as the world. This is only possible because the primary tool of Global Apartheid is Nation States. While it has become less and less acceptable to discriminate opportunity by race, gender, and sexual preference, “where you were born” is still a legal tool of hereditary privilege and apartness. According to Bryan Caplan’s book “Open Borders”, we are willing to pay a Trillion Dollars in economic handcuffs to restrict the free flow of labour, goods, capital and services. The biggest loser in the restriction of four freedoms is people. I am a Soutie. One foot in South Africa and one foot in the UK. In the relief programs for 2020’s forced time to reflect, unemployed people in South Africa received R350/month (about £15). The furlough program in the UK saw about 7.5 million people receive 80% of their salaries. Capital Controls make it difficult to even send Unconditional Cash Transfers. The contrast is stark. I only see that because my eyes and heart are on both countries. South Africa takes the world’s inequality, squashes it, and shoves it in your face.

Boxing Opportunity

Money is made in containers. An ask, an offer, and a box. Meritocracy without a denominator is Privilege. The problem is we are seduced by numbers. It is easier to manage and reward things you can count. I came to the UK in 2008 on the Highly Skilled Migrant Program. Not dissimilar from the points-based system being suggested now. It is one of my most obvious hypocrisies for someone who believes in the four freedoms of movement. Without the free flow of Capital, Goods, Services and People, we live in a system of Global Apartheid. South Africa introduced Homelands and Dompas (internal passports) using Self-Determination and all the other tricks to justify the borders we see between nations. Nations put opportunity in boxes. Based simply on the lottery of birth. Money is made by actually solving problems, or artificially restricting our ability to solve problems and limiting who gets to benefit.

Opening Up

Having grown up in Apartheid South Africa, I am a supporter of the Four Freedoms of Movement – Goods, Capital, Services, and Labour. Wealth compounds over the very long term. The marginal contribution is amplified or muted by what came before. A lottery of birth shouldn’t determine the impact of our effort. I believe in “Open Borders” (See the book by Caplan and Weinersmith) but ironically/hypocritically (?) came to the UK on a Highly Skilled Migrant Program that allowed me to arrive without a job offer. This opportunity wasn’t (and isn’t) open to everyone. I got a job offer before moving, but didn’t like the idea of being tied to a company. Still, I went through the process and now hold two passports. Two of the things I don’t believe in. Caplan calls this a “keyhole solution”. Better than closed borders by targeting the specific objections as narrowly as possible. Typical keyhole solutions include immigration tariffs, guest worker programs, and linguistic and cultural fluency requirements.

Building Time

One of the three legs of Rutger Bregman’s “Utopia for Realists” stool is a 15-hour work week. You can be financially wealthy and still be time impoverished. There are good ideas, and there are good business ideas. I like the concept of ring-fencing the time and energy we allocate to problems. To well-articulated and communicated ask-offer exchanges that are put in supply-controlled containers. Usain Bolt “charges for 10 seconds”. 15 hours may not seem like a lot, but it changes the way we view how we count. Time is a lazy supply-controlled container. A catch-all bucket that becomes the default. Thinking how we can construct a world that only requires a 15-hour workweek requires creativity. Building Capital to supplement our income. Shifting from charging for time. Snapping the definition of ourselves and our specific skill sets from the problems we work on. Freeing ourselves to work on things that aren’t problems. I don’t think time and financial poverty are things we just have to accept as the way life is. We can tweak reality.