Lesson One

It is my desire to fill this corner of the web with profound observations on the nature of the economy, business and the internet. Specifically, I wish to look at the economics of prosperity and address the challenge of creating an economic system that lets us thrive in great the abundance given to us by nature and technology.

In this work, I will make a few observations on the relation between the individual and the whole society that I believe will help people understand the basic nature of money and prosperity.

Looking at the disparity in the quality of living throughout world, it is clear that there are economic systems that lead to prosperity and happiness, while others tend to impovrishment and suffering. Most horrifically, the 2000th century demonstrated that there even philosophical systems that lead to killing fields and inhumanities of unimaginable proportions.

The goal of this site is to help create a philosophy of peace and prosperity. It is an admirable goal, unfortunately, this author has one minor obstacle to surmount: I do not have a track record of success in the various ventures upon which I've set forth . With an employment record that simply leads from one failure to another, I find myself questioning my own legitimacy in trying to define a philosophy of success.

Since I chose to follow as a programmer, I do not have the academic credentials that let traditional scholars sneak around the success questions.

To be frank, traditional publishers would likely reject this manuscript on my lack on credentials. However, on the internet there are no qualifications to speak. Anyone with a keyboard and computer can set up a web site.

The internet provides a more interesting challenge: The reader glances at a few pages on a web site, then decides what to read based on the value the site renders to the reader. It is my sincerest hope that I am able to create a site that is valuable to my readers.

My motivation in creating this web site is to speak about the foundations of a free market and a prosperous society.

As I write this work, I cannot help but see myself as a jaded computer program who has burnt out on the corporate scene. While I still cherish my youthful idealism, I find myself quite often playing the part of jaded intellectual. Like many workers in the technology sector, I've witnessed first hand how the true business innovators have been pushed aside by political drones, and I have watched as destructive economic forces have destroyed large segments of the technology sector.

Yes, I often feel like screaming. I feel like spewing forth with the "anti-capitalist" line I was taught in school.

As I comtemplate my own motivations, I cannot help but think of the motivations of the different works I've read and of the teachers who taught me.

While I still think the world of the professors I had in school, it has finally dawned on me that, for the most part, the education system is full of people who seek refuge from the free market. As such, it is not the ideal place to learn about the free market.

There is a great deal of truth to the addage: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Students really wishing to learn a subject are wize to move beyond the teachers and find the doers in the society.

But back to motivation. It so happens that a great deal of what we learn in school about business comes from people who openly rejected the business world. Such people tend to give a skewed vision of the ideology they have rejected. A very good case in point is that the term "capitalist" was largely defined by Karl Marx...one of the greatest enemies of the free market.

The whole situation is somewhat farcical. Basically, what we learn about business in school is taught by people who reject the business world and have a skewed vision about how the business world operates. They teach this skewed vision to their students who immediately run out and run businesses in the absurd manner taught in school.

We are taught that business people are inherently cut throat and evil. The self fulfilling prophesy creates a situation where our business schools produce a large number of extremely immoral, downright bad business people who wreak havoc in our economcy.

And so we come to the main thrust of lesson one: A great deal of what we read about capitalism (here used as a synonym for the free market) was written by the enemies of the free market.

The unfortunate result of this sad truth is that we have learned a great number of many false premises about the nature of the free market.