To have a snowballing chance in this brave, new, globalized, made-up economy, here’s something millennials need to know and understand. For all practical purposes, ALL THE DISCRETIONARY WEALTH IS BEING GENERATED ON THE OWNERSHIP SIDE OF THE ECONOMY!
So is. There are two ways to generate income. You can work for it in order to earn a wage or salary. Or you may own capital assets that produce wealth, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, machinery, copyrights or patents, etc. Owners of such wealth-producing capital assets collect dividends (ie, generate income) strictly by virtue of their ownership.
That’s why best-selling author and motivational speaker Robert Kiyosaki says, “A job is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.” The long-term solution to the long-term problem, of course, is equity ownership because, for all practical purposes, ALL DISCRETIONARY WEALTH IS BEING GENERATED FROM THE ECONOMY SIDE OF OWNERSHIP, NOT THE JOBS SIDE /JOB. The labor side of the economy has been stagnant for more than three decades, while the property side has expanded exponentially over the same period.
So what can millennials do?
So what can millennials do with this valuable knowledge? For starters, after graduation, as they make their way into the brave new economy of the 21st century, they can search for employee-owned businesses (including worker-owned cooperatives and ESOPS) and submit their resumes and applications . .
Guarantee of future profits
You see, employee-owned businesses (ESOPs, which is short for Employee Stock Ownership Plans) are organized in such a way that qualifying employees are rewarded with opportunities to buy stock (become partial partners) in the company they work for using FUTURE COMPANY PROFITS (as opposed to their own savings or equity, which minimizes personal risk) AS COLLATERAL. In investment circles, this strategy would be called a Leveraged Buyout (LBO).
THIS UNIQUE FORM OF EQUITY CREDIT FINANCING IS ACCESSIBLE ONLY TO EMPLOYEES WORKING FOR COMPANIES THAT OFFER AN ESOP OPTION. More specifically, it’s not available at employee-owned cooperatives, which is the next best thing. And it has NOTHING TO DO with a company offering employee stock options that is not only highly speculative, but 100% reliant on conventional collateralized financing possibilities.
Two streams of income
Thus, without dipping into savings or jeopardizing the family home, ESOP employees develop TWO STREAMS OF INCOME. One from your salary or wages, and the other from your stock-based dividends. The former is actively generated through the employee’s own time and effort. The second is the passive or residual income that is generated by virtue of your ownership.
Suddenly, you see employees/workers benefiting from both the work/work and ownership side of the economy, which, as we’ve said before, is where ALL THE DISCRETIONARY WEALTH IS BEING GENERATED in the 21st century economy.
What else can millennials do?
So what else can millennials do in this regard? They can support political candidates who champion employee ownership as a business model. For example, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has sponsored two bills in the US Senate that are specifically designed to encourage employee ownership practices. The first (S.2909) “Provides programs designed to encourage employee ownership and participation in business decision-making throughout the United States.” The second (S.2914) “Creates a US Employee Owned Bank”, which is designed to be friendly to the idea of using future earnings as collateral in the stock ownership transaction.
The more millennials know about the power of ownership, the better their chances of participating in the ownership side of the economy, where, as we’ve said before, all discretionary wealth is generated. In the process, the evil wealth gap that so threatens American democracy may be reversed. Corporate plantations that are built on hierarchy and on the backs of modern wage slaves can be democratized. And the chances of millennials surviving, even thriving, in the 21st-century economy will be maximized.
PS By the way, since this strategy is based on private (not public) property, it is a capitalist solution to our problems, not a socialist solution.