Plutocracy - Anand Giridharadas and Preet Bharara

Some may know that I spent three years working in an office that gave away $5 million per year to nonprofits.  Though the duration of that time was short, it had a disproportionate influence on my philosophy.  That $5 million given away was the dividend from a $100 million investment.  Today's ultra-wealthy are worth more than ten times that much. 

Related to my own experiences, there's a valuable discussion in Preet Bharara's podcast conversation with Anand Giridharadas, related to Giridharadas' latest book Winners Take All.  I'll advise that some of the best commentary is towards the end. At the beginning, most of Bharara's hypothetical scenarios are inadequate, but the challenge of inventing a suitable hypothetical scenario, and the answers to those hypothetical scenarios give you a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem. 

Bharara is not just playing devil's advocate. The American Dream is part of what keeps the US economy going, but it's also created a hollowness to the economy that has led to major and minor collapses.  I agree with Bharara that motivation is an extremely valuable thing.  I disagree with some of Giridharadas' solutions or ideas that eliminating motivation might be good.  My take is that the goal is not to eliminate motivation, but to make the motivation realistic - a stable economy cannot be based on the notion that everyone is going to win the lottery in the near future.  And the point of the book is that the goal is to promote democracy; not plutocracy.*

*democracy itself is showing some of its weaknesses lately, but part of the problem is the influence which has risen as in the book's title Winners Take All.  There is never perfection, but there are goals worth working towards; a better democracy being preferable to plutocracy, monarchy, or dictatorship.

Kiteboarding - update

Yesterday one of my fears was realized... I lost my board out in the bay.  I am still learning - not up on the board yet.  But I saw another guy taking lessons, and they were having him body drag while holding the board.  I decided that would be a good thing to do.  Except...  obstacles...

The beach has a few swimming areas with shark nets (sharks are rare in that area, but they do travel up the river on the other side).  There was also rock jetty just south of the net.  I was out maybe three times the length of the jetty.  As I was playing with the kite and turning around to head back in - ideally towards the place where I first left the beach - I did a kite loop that threw me a bit off, and I dropped the board as I regained control. I surveyed the situation, thinking about how to maneuver back to my board, while also checking out how much distance I had before I would get too close to the net.  I felt like I probably could have gotten the board, but if I started getting too close, I could always head away from shore and leave the board.  But then a guy on a board whizzed by and yelled, "Go back!"   

This made me reassess.  I think he thought I wasn't paying attention to the net that I was drifting towards, or that I wouldn't be able to move away from it if necessary.  So in that moment, I decided to head back to shore - BUT - go around the net and jetty to the next open strip of beach downwind rather than trying to cut back in and risk having my kite drift into the netted area.

So it takes me awhile to get past the net and jetty.  In hindsight, I probably could have used the kite to power downwind a lot faster, but since I was unnerved about dropping my board, decided to go gently.  I actually enjoyed being out in the water, though I didn't want to do any loops with the kite and risk losing control and wearing myself out.  By the time I get back to shore, get my kite landed, and walk back around, the instructor who was standing on shore motioned that the other guy had brought my board to shore.  I hadn't walked past it, so I thought maybe he put it with all the other equipment.  I looked everywhere, then ran into the guy who had brought it in.  He said he dropped it on the shore by the shark net.  I walk back twice.  I ask a few people on the beach.  Nothing.  Later, I run into him again and he says "there were some people looking at it when I put it on the shore; they could have picked it up."  

The board had a sticker on it with my phone number, and since I bought it used, the previous owner's number, though pretty faded.  So I was hoping maybe when I got home to my phone, there might be a message.  Nope.  Now my conundrum...  That board was $650 USED - not cheap!   I'd love to get a split board - would be easier to carry on my motorcycle.  But a split board is twice that price.  Until I get up to speed, I should probably just get a cheap board.  But even a cheap board is a lot of money to lose. Sigh.

Also of note... I don't feel like I need more lessons at this point - I feel like I just need more practice.  When I do something wrong, I feel like I know what I did wrong, and it seems silly to pay someone a lot of money to tell me what I'm doing wrong.  If I don't feel like I'm making progress, sure, then I'll consider more lessons.  But for now, I just need more time on the water.