Wealth and responsibility

Who is John Galt?

Americans are undergoing a rough transition from the politics of the New Deal to one of No Deal. We have been transforming our social mores for the past 40 or 50 years beginning with the rise of Ayn Rand novels and the teachings of economist Milton Freidman. I have read, studied and followed these teachings to the point of outgrowing them. Much like Alan Greenspan, I had come to a point where the failings of these philosophies  in everyday life were too blatant to ignore.

With Ayn Rand, it was the late 1960's and I was sold on the idea of 'Atlas Shrugged .' I came to understand, I was in my 20's, that this was ego-centered, selfish behavior that was unsustainable in a life that included loved ones, family and an extended social circle. Being sold on the idea that I am the center of the universe and anyone that opposed my interpretation of events was a threat to my rugged individualism only lasted so long. Too many people had helped, and continued to help, me achieve my goals. That was an easy one to figure out.

A little more challenging was my experience in Graduate school in the late 1970's. I enrolled in the University of Rochester M.B.A. program to continue my career in health care administration. I enjoyed working with others in the hospital field to deliver quality health care in my community. Of course, I was young and on the rise in my organization and feeling great that they were giving me a recommendation and Fridays, with pay, to attend classes. The UofR program was staffed mostly with "monetarists" trained in Chicago by Mr. Freidman. It wasn't long before I was up against the same principles that Ayn Rand espoused, but with statistical and economic twists. It took me until my second year to figure it out but then my challenges to their teaching became somewhat disruptive; I wrote poems, made statements and left classes in a flurry of disbelief at the blatant propagandizing going on in the name of education. We were the elite and expected to swallow everything whole in order to advance in the corporate line-up. I declined.

The root of it all came into focus over the following years. In order to be successful at business one needed to concentrate on the details and ignore the bigger picture of life, not pay attention to anything that Ayn Rand wouldn't approve of. Developing a faith in the ability of the profit driven system to regulate itself was both a belief and a rationalization. By giving oneself to this mechanism one never had to question the outcome of ones actions nor come up with another justification for ones actions. This is what Mr. Greenspan held dearly to for so many years until the debacle of the banking collapse when he realized that greed trumped rational self interest.

Now we have a political movement overtaking the country based on these basic ideas, philosophies and economic theories with a large dose of anti-science and scapegoating thrown in. It isn't pretty and it isn't moral, or healthy, or good for the long-term good of the country.

I met a man who spent his health to gain his wealth, and then with might and pain, spent his wealth to gain his health, again.

When you collect your wealth using whatever means possible, one should endeavor to preserve it by being good to others. Keep some portion of it in reserve for charitable purposes. You might say that this is a process of atonement to maintain one's riches; a way to launder and atone for the actions taken to gain wealth with the exclusion of all else. This is more the way of the world, in fact.

In the pursuit of wealth most people neglect their eating habits, social interactions and family life; you have to follow a pretty strict regimentation if you want to stay rich. Then you have to spend it all to become whole again. Such is life.

Anger on either side of this transitional struggle will only deepen our divide. If you have an understanding of the shape of the problem facing us, then you are the one to begin building the bridge to the other side. It's those that have the tools that have to do the building.

So those with wealth in wisdom must share with those in the poverty of ignorance just as they expect those with wealth in riches to share with those in financial poverty. A way will be found... it always is, to come back into balance.

Many wisdom traditions of the East and West offer a different way of life that includes charitable giving of wealth and heart. It is by balancing out work life with our spiritual life that the puzzle is often solved.

"Money is a good servant but a bad master." F. Bacon
"Money is the means of exchanging love." W. Wilson

Yoga-nomics: Who owns what?

Years ago I began integrating 'Core Strength' into my yoga practice and teaching. However, I have always acknowledged the influences outside of Yoga that gave rise to the changed elements. Satya, i suppose.

This is a tricky issue in Yoga: what are the influences that give rise to 'adjective yoga.' Should they be acknowledged? Whether the influences come from 'inside' yoga tradition or from 'outside,' does this integration allow branding as a 'new' yoga? This is a broad question, not only asked of you, but of all integrators of new elements to Yoga practice.

Well, now the Indian government is taking it seriously. (read the full article)

Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta, who heads the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, a Delhi-based government organisation set up jointly by the ministries of health and science, told the Guardian: "Simple text isn't adequate. People are claiming they are doing something different from the original yoga when they are not."

"Yoga originated in India. People cannot claim to invent a new yoga when they have not."

From the information at hand, I am in agreement. The problem isn't one of having access to practicing Yoga, rather the issue is individuals laying claim to the right to own some parts of Yogasana practice and name it as their own. The phenomenon of 'adjective yoga.'

"There is no intention to stop people practising yoga but nobody should misappropriate yoga and start charging franchise money," said Gupta, who, like many Delhi residents, practises the ancient art in a park near his home. "As for hot yoga, power yoga, or whatever I have no views to comment. Our job is to provide the evidence and let others decide."

The campaign to preserve yoga as Indian has its roots in a bid several years ago by Bikram Choudhury, the self-proclaimed Hollywood "yoga teacher to the stars", to get his Bikram yoga style patented in the US.

"They are creating brands," said Guru Singh, who has himself invented what he calls "Urban Yoga".

In our culture, Pilates has really brought the whole issue of 'Core' into popular consciousness. Joe Pilates used these principals, which he acknowledged were influenced by gymnastics, yoga, etc., as foundational. In turn, yoga teachers have begun to emphasize the core in recent years. Many teachers are strong, like Dharma Mitra, but the whole core emphasis is of a different kind. 

Today it seems yoga teachers are straining credulity. They do this by finding the slightest connection with bandhas and/or mudras to bring in innovations of other modalities or by selecting one aspect of the broad teaching of Yoga and creating what they call a new style of yoga.

Satya, Yogi's and Yogini's.

Sate hitam satyam. Which translates to "The path to ultimate truth or Sat  is satya (i.e. the real truth).

Download a partial listing of the various Styles of Yoga in the USA... all 'adjective' Yoga's.

Yoga-nomics: Structuring the Business

With the wave of social awareness cresting in the Blue states, how can individuals and groups bring "Change" that is necessary. With current structures of ownership, it can be difficult at best.

So, as the pitfalls of unbridled capitalism are uncovered around us, we require new ways of organizing socially responsible activities.

Social enterprises that have a clearly defined mission often don't fit neatly into existing ownership structures. Those that register as nonprofits have trouble tapping private capital to expand, while for-profit companies risk compromising their missions because they must put shareholders' returns first. But growing interest in hybrid business models has brought about efforts at the state level to create new corporate structures that allow entrepreneurs to combine nonfinancial goals into for-profit businesses.

One new form, known as the Low-profit Limited Liability Company (or L3C), is intended for companies that put their missions before profits. The structure lets them qualify for loans or investments that further a foundation's goals and also may yield financial returns. First adopted in Vermont in April 2008, the L3C is now also on the books in Michigan, Utah, and Wyoming. There are 53 L3Cs in Vermont and a handful in other states so far.

For now, however, social ventures must find creative ways to straddle the line between nonprofit and for-profit. All of these entail complex combinations of for- and not-for-profit corporate structures, attorneys for each organization, property right and intellectual property agreements and clear-cut equity and debt arrangements. Putting together these solutions can be time consuming and cumbersome.

Excerpted from Business Structure Article