What Does Capitalism Mean to You? – Episode 369

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors.

[00:00] In this episode of the Prosperity Podcast, we’re going to address what capitalism is. We’re going to be talking about the future of it and how we can embrace it. So Kim, I think first, let’s define it. How do you define capitalism? I think my most favorite definition came from Dan Sullivan, my coach at Strategic Coach, who coined a term, capableism, because unfortunately in today’s world, capitalism has some negative connotations and it absolutely can go awry as can anything. And yet, to me, what capitalism is all about, you can get some economic definitions like the movement of money is an example, and the trading of goods and services, which is so important. And I want to come back to that services sentence in a minute.

[00:55] But it’s really about capability. It’s up leveling capability. It’s taking something that you have, some thing or some service, and making it better and listening to the people that are using it and iterating and improving and providing good in the world and then getting compensated for it. Because if money is not moving in our world, our society is shut down. And we saw that in 08 and 09, and we got to see it again in 2020 because we didn’t learn well enough the first time. And I’m not talking about the medical issue of 2020, I’m talking about the economic issue of capitalism, the movement of money, the trading of goods and services that just went into a serious halt because of the medical issue.

[01:49] So to me, capitalism is so capable and yet it’s ever improving. And then I also want to add in something that I’ve learned from Todd Langford, my husband, who studies this stuff incessantly. And that is that it’s truly a law like gravity. And regardless of what your political opinion is on it, capitalism works. Capitalism creates, capitalism provides, and these are all things that we want to have happen. And we’ve said on this podcast before how money is not the most important thing, but it affects all of the most important things. And I believe capitalism is the same way. Every aspect of everything in our world has a business component to it, a capitalistic component to it. I told my dad just the other day, your nonprofit, which he runs a church, it needs to make

[02:52] a profit. Like if it doesn’t make a profit, now I get it, technically it’s not a profit in the IRS’s eyes because you’re spending it on the good that you’re doing. But if it doesn’t make more money than it spends every single year, it will not be sustainable. Like you can’t out give negative expenses, you can handle it for a short period of time, but not forever and ever and ever. And so this is part of the laws or the rules of capitalism that I think is so important that so many people overlook. And then I want to go back to that service part before I get curious about your definition, Spencer, and the service part is so critical. Also from Todd Langford, he talks about the definition of retirement being to be

[03:37] taken out of service. And there’s 14 definitions of retirement. But that one should be a slap in the face to us human beings, because I think sometimes that sounds so tempting. Like yes, I’m tired of serving. I just want to stop. I just I want the world to stop. Right? Wouldn’t it be nice if the world stopped? Guess what? We had the world stop. Nobody liked it. We heard all over this country. People are like, laugh. This is what retirement’s like. I want nothing to do with it. Well, us human beings must take free days so that we can take a break from serving so that when we’re done with our free days, we can go back and serve. And that’s what capitalism does. It enables us to serve, make a profit so that then we can serve some more.

[04:25] Absolutely. That’s a great point. I think there are I’m going to push back, but kind of I should say, I always have a challenge with nonprofits because it tends to be in not all nonprofits are this way, but most of them, they tend to be in debt to someone. And that’s a problem because a lot of nonprofits out there, they are able to function by virtue of a grant or by a wealthy family or whatever that may be. And whenever that happens, the scales are tipped, meaning there is an invisible underlying tone that you have to agree or do whatever the people are giving you money. Whereas in capitalism, my definition is the free exchange of providing value and service to someone else. And it literally is, I feel, the free exchange of that.

[05:21] And so when you have a business and you are focused on capitalism, on providing a value or service, if it’s not in line with your principles, you don’t have to do business with that person. And that’s a challenge in some of those nonprofits. I agree. And nonprofits are truly subject to a whole bunch of rules that almost take away the free part of what you just said. So yeah, I love the pushback. Go for it. I can be argued with. Yes. Yes. So I think that that can be a challenge. So what we’re finding now is this tone. And I’m going to I’m going to make a connection. I think capitalism, if we had this conversation 50 years ago, there would be no pushback as a society, because the definition of the word and the tone of it was completely

[06:20] different. And I’m going to use an example. So recently I saw that the word irregardless made it into the dictionary. Now, folks, the word irregardless is not a word, it’s regardless. And so because of that, we can see how the definitions and the language has changed and it’s been polluted. And I think it’s it’s enlightening and it’s wonderful to hear, you know, capableism and hearing about the trade of good and services for us to get back to the actual purpose and the truth of it, the principles of those pieces. That’s really well said. The favorite restaurant when I was growing up in Corvallis, Oregon. So this is I’m going to say, like the 70s, early 80s was called the Gay Parfait. That restaurant no longer exists because the definition of words have changed.

[07:18] The meaning of words have changed. And so it is absolutely a time for us to choose our own definitions and work with words in the way that they have meaning to us. I mean, obviously, if you’re on the public, you have to roll with what’s proper, et cetera. Although that’s a little scary about the dictionary thing. I hadn’t heard that. But, you know, actually, to riff on that for a minute, that’s exactly how things get decided, right? It’s by committee, it’s by popular use. And this is something that we have going on in our world right now, where there may be laws about certain things, but those are maybe taking away our ability to make moral decisions or decisions that relate to us. So when we’re working on our own minds and our own businesses, we need to be really

[08:15] clear what the definition is of these things to us and then how we’re going to implement them. And then, of course, we need to be extra clear how those definitions impact those who we are serving and helping make sure that they are clear on how we interpret those words. I think that’s really where the value is in defining things, being picky about words, which I am totally picky about words in terms of not all words, but many and how they’re used and how they’re interpreted and what they’re used next to, since that also matters. And I just am so grateful that we live at a time where we can stop and say, I don’t agree with this perception of this term or the storyline that is coming along with it from mainstream media.

[09:11] And I have my own brain. I can turn my brain on. I can think about this word, this story, how I want to perceive this. And then I get to take action. And as long as the people that I’m serving are not offended by that action, then that’s the right action for me and my thinking. And that kind of brain on ness, batteries included, Dan Sullivan calls it, is so valuable and so important in our world today. So I don’t do this often, but I am going to push back on the language that you just said. Tell me you said that they may not be offended. So here’s the question. Can we offend someone or is it their choice to be offended? So we cannot actually, I think you’re right. I think it is their choice to be offended.

[10:00] And I think also that we’re not here to serve everybody. And so if somebody does choose to be offended by something, they can choose whether that is just a short term, like blow it off, quote, offense or a longer term disconnect, which is not a bad thing. Maybe the conversation that we need to be having now is this because one, I believe that we cannot offend. Now, again, I want to put a stamp on this of saying we’re not going to go out of our way to be rude. So we don’t want to do that. But we can’t choose how someone’s going to react. So we need to understand how to have conversations with people that could potentially be offended by it, because there are some people who say capitalism and they’re all up in arms about it.

[10:53] And so when you tend to have friends or family that are of similar thought, there’s not a lot of pushback. But as you start to educate others and have conversations, that’s where the pushback happens. So I’d love for us to dialogue back and forth and hope to be able to clearly and concisely explain what capitalism is in the most persuasive, not offensive way. How does that work? Yeah. And that it is not easy without a doubt. So I think the first of all, the tone of voice, the manner, like the physical manner of how your body is being when you’re having these conversations is of paramount importance. And I am not good at it myself. I know that I can get a really rusty tone of voice going if I feel like

[11:51] somebody’s disagreeing with me from the beginning. And frankly, I’m not out in the public a lot. So I don’t have a lot of practice in this. And yet I know that when a conversation starts with love and a desire to understand, not to be understood, that then a conversation can occur. There’s the old story of Ted and Ting. Do you remember this? We’ve talked about it before. I don’t recall. You have to bring this up to me. Yes. So Ted is somebody that is interested in their listening and they’re asking questions and they’re being respectful and their tone of voice and their physical demeanor is evident of that. Ting is interesting. And Ting is spouting off facts and figures and knowledge and showing his wisdom and has the chub spa and the tone of voice

[12:51] and the physical mannerisms to show all of that. Who do you think is going to have a better, more fruitful conversation? Ted or Ting? I would say Ted. And many of the attorneys that I work with are a lot of Ting’s. Oh, yeah. Attorneys are fabulous for that capability. Yes. Yes, the Teds. Yes, yes. So that is the foundation from which you share. And so questions are fabulous and maybe the conversation is already in play and you can just say, that’s interesting. Can you help me understand? And then button the lips. If somebody is talking about capitalism in a way that you feel might not be as educated as necessary, you can just say, that’s interesting. Can you help me understand? I’m going to make a statement. I want to see through your filter.

[13:57] I think that most people genuinely care about others and they’re emphatic about their position, say they’re against capitalism, because they internally feel like it’s not the best. Would you say that’s how most people operate? Yes, I think they emotionally feel that it’s not the best. Okay. But maybe their logic is just off, correct? Yeah. Okay. And I think if we look at that from that perspective, and as you were explaining to understand and not be understood, if we can just take a moment to pause and perhaps realize that they’re probably making that decision because they feel it’s the best, but they might not have the entire picture. Maybe they’re, you know, as you kind of see a large, beautiful painting,

[14:51] imagine being one inch up from it. You only see a fine detail and you have to step back to see the entire portrait. Yes. So this is so accurate in conversations, right? We hear snippets, clippets, half sentences, some soundbite, and we make decisions on those. And then oftentimes I think you kind of overhear something that can just be an affront or it sounds like it’s an affront. And then that’s when the hackles get up and the conversation starts. And then it’s all a big punching match, right? It’s a verbal punching match. And that is not productive. So if capitalism is your area of love and somebody is talking about it in a way that’s not to your liking, then again, seeking to be understood and then asking,

[15:42] well, how open-minded are you about that? Like, is this an area that you want to learn about a little bit? And maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. I find if people are not open-minded, sometimes it’s better just to be quiet. I agree. Now, there’s one thing that we didn’t discuss that I think all of our listeners can use as a tool for this conversation. And we’re going to use it as like a choose your own adventure. We’ll call it a roadmap. And that is the principles of prosperity, because every single one of those principles tie into capitalism. And we haven’t discussed that, but I feel like you can take each of those pieces and apply it to some principle of capitalism. Would you agree? Yes, absolutely.

[16:23] I got to tell you, I love those seven principles of prosperity. They have been applied to so many things, and they are so helpful as a framework for learning and discussion and can be so widely used, which is one of the proofs that they are principles, because a principle should be able to be applied, not only to each other, like if you take the first one and just think, it can literally be applied to C, measure, cash flow, control, move, multiply. So one can be applied to two, three, four, five, six, seven. Then you take the second one, C, and you can go backwards to think, and then on into three, four, five, six, seven. And so, yeah, that’s an awesome one. Is there one in particular that stands out to you for capitalism?

[17:12] You know, to me, it’s control. That’s probably one of the principles that I go back to most often, because I feel like to truly run a good business, you’re not going to force someone to work with you, and you’re not going to force someone to do a transaction with you. You’re going to leave it to people that understand what your values are and want to be a part of that vision. And as far as a customer goes, they’re gonna want to transact with you if you’re providing value for the exchange of money. I think it’s multiply, because as we all know, when you’re doing good in the world, which any business is, then that benefits not only the seller, but the buyer, and potentially a wholesale person or some other third party.

[18:01] And I just love the idea of win-win-win. And so the multiplier effect is a win-win-win environment. We’ve got investments that I measure this way. We’ve got transactions, strategies, relationships, et cetera, where I make sure it’s win times three or I’m not involved. And to me, that’s what capitalism is all about, is it’s a win on everybody’s part, including the buyer. All right. I changed my mind. That was good. That was really good. Here’s what we’ll do for listeners. Go and get the principles of prosperity if you don’t have them. What’s the best place for them to get those principles? The best place is partnersforprosperity.com forward slash ebook, which a lot of our listeners have already signed up

[18:55] for the ebook and in that autoresponder series. So you’re going to get the ebook, financial planning has failed. And if you haven’t read that in a while, it might be worth the reread because then the second email will be the seven principles of prosperity. And if you wanna opt out again at that point, that’s fine. I don’t believe you’re gonna end up with two sets of our newsletters anyway because I think our database is smart enough to not do that to you. But that’s really the best beginning spot is partners number four, prosperity.com forward slash ebook. Thank you, Kim. And I encourage everyone to go and get a copy of that. And it may be one of those things that you can just share with friends

[19:35] or you can just take one bullet point and you can elaborate from there. So we’ll put that link inside of the show notes so it’s easy for you to click and just get it from there. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you. Visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.