For many years, I've been applying myself to learn many different kinds of things. I've picked up a lot of skills - writing, graphic design, computer programming, photography, and so forth. And I've also learned a lot about the world, by spending a lot of time on the internet reading the latest scientific and technological news, and things like that. And I always have had in mind the idea that the more skills one has, the more ways you have to make money. I don't think it's true.

Today, I was talking with a gentleman who works for a local natural gas company, repairing compressors. I realised what the word "capitalism" meant today. It means that people with money can create cash cows. And that's how our economies work. This guy estimates that the company he works for pulls in a billion dollars a day, gross, from the natural gas which is sold from their wells. All they have to do is drill a hole in the ground, and pipe out this substance, compress it, and then sell it to others through those same pipes. All around us are examples of other cash cows - from the telephone service, to internet service, to health insurance, to cable television. Basically, any service where everyone pays a certain amount of money each month for a fungible commodity is a cash cow. Factories and mineral mines and forestry are also examples of cash cows. And it seems to me that there is an inverse correlation - the more intellect you throw at a project, the less profitable it will be. This is because simplicity cuts down on the work put into a project.

So, intellect is really a thing which is good for increasing one's own enjoyment of life. And it can be used to make your world a better place, or it can be used when you are teaching other people who need a leg up in life. But intellect leads to poverty, not wealth.

And all of us who engage in creating art, or literature, or teaching children - or any of the "finer" things in life, kind of are living at the whim of those who create cash cows. That's where the locus of control is. Who funds the schools? Those who pay the taxes for them. It's interesting how people who are poor always want to "stick it to the man" - but in fact, our system of government and its social services were created by people who had the resources, and decided they wanted to use them to help people.