The phrase, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is considered by many both a truism and an indictment of the free-market system. Typically, this statement is followed by a demand for some type of government controlled “redistribution of wealth” or “stealing from Peter to pay Paul.” Thomas Sowell argues that, in fact, the statistics actually argue the opposite, that the rich are getting poorer, and the poor are getting richer.

…income tax data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service seem to show the exact opposite: People in the bottom fifth of income-tax filers in 1996 had their incomes increase by 91 percent by 2005. The top one percent — “the rich” who are supposed to be monopolizing the money, according to the left — saw their incomes decline by a whopping 26 percent. Meanwhile, the average taxpayers’ real income increased by 24 percent between 1996 and 2005.

Why does this seem to contradict the normal statistics? These statistics (from the IRS) track individuals through time, where as most statistics about income distribution take a snapshot of the entire population at one time. When we look at the population in any given year, the income of the people in the lowest 20% might have grown less than then income of the people in the top 20% (this is often the case). However, the people who were in the bottom 20% in one year have often moved out of the bottom in another. In the same way, those in the top 20% often fall down out of the top position into a lower one. The truth is that most people are constantly increasing and decreasing their wealth, as they gain skills after years of work, or retire from it later on. In fact, as Mr. Sowell reports, in a University of Michigan study, over an 8 year period, half the people in the bottom twenty percent– those we think of as “the poor”– were not in that bracket the following year. Three percent of those in the bottom bracket one year were actually in the top bracket the following year.”

Hence, while the statistics in any one year tell one story, the statistics of individuals through time tell another.

Question - which is the more important story? That the overall statistics show an increasing gap between the lowest 20% and the highest 20%? Or that people often dramatically shift their relative income, moving in and out of poverty, the middle class, and the wealthy with regularity?

I think the answer is, “yes.” They are both important, and compliment each other. For Money, Mission, and Meaning listeners, the key is to notice that just because general statistics say one thing, your own path might look completely different. As the saying goes, “you don’t drown if you fall in the water. You only drown if you stay there.”

To learn more about the extraordinary mind and timeliness of Thomas Sowell, please enjoy how this clip from a 1980 lecture is still as timely today.

As CEO of Smart Energy Enterprises, Inc. (SEE-Inc. A Beautiful Future Now!), makers of SmartPower Smart Energy Drink, I work to bring my passion and purpose into my business life on a daily basis. Our life-positive branding and superior quality energy drinks 2.0 are my full-time vehicle to make this happen.

As we begin our momentus shift into what I call the First Virtual Age (where we shift the bulk of our lives into internet based mediums), each major step becomes a part of history. We are currently accomplishing one of these steps through a partnership with a Facebook application named Booze Mail, where we created virtual drinks that introduce our physical ones. With nearly 1 million SmartPower based virtual drinks being passed back and forth in the first week, it offers the opportunity for Booze Mail and SEE-Inc. to monetize a Facebook application and create a new type of partnership between virtual and physical worlds.

If you are on Facebook, and want to enter our Giveaway, or want to get on Facebook (which I believe will be the premier social networking application in the world within 18 months - and on into the near future), make sure to download the BoozeMail Application, and make friends with Smart Energy Drinks.

For now, I encourage you to clarify your dreams and take productive action towards their accomplishment!

Mark

Politics, n: [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”] - Larry Hardiman

Politicians say they’re beefing up our economy. Most don’t know beef from pork. - Harold Lowman

In the lastest episode of Money, Mission, and Meaning, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Morler, PhD, MBA, and the author of The Leadership Integrity Challenge. We discussed the provocative model of emotional maturity he uses to increase the integrity and effectiveness of organizations. It cuts to the heart of the central challenge that businesses face and offers practical methods to deal with it - a great show. In this blog, I want to expand on the ideas we discussed and clarify how integrity can be understood in terms of the fundamental paradigm of our day: politics.

Politics. The very word can incite people to both passionately take a position and shake their heads in resigned frustration. It is the social reality and tension between people working together to acheive both common and personal goals. Politics, good or bad, can make or break your community, your nation, and your organization. How can we learn to work with the political realities we face while building projects that further our organizational goals? What would bringing integrity to business politics look like?

Politics can be an expression of personal and organizational integrity or dis-integration; it can be “positive” or “negative.” In governmental affairs, we see leaders who powerfully address pressing issues with honest creativity and politicians who “spin” the truth or out and out lie to increase their power base. In business, we find leaders who generate and execute creative projects that further the companies ability to serve their customer and office politicians who spin the numbers, take credit for other people’s work, and blame others for their mistakes.

Positive politics comes from leaders who integrate their personal goals with the organizations mission without sacrificing one to the other. They maintain and deepen their integrity in the context of the collective. In the process, they bring their passion to their position, and contribute their creativity and genius to the group. They add real value to the whole.

Negative politics, on the other hand, stems from people who cannot integrate their personal goals into the organizational mission. They either sacrifice their own goals to the common goals, or sacrifice the common goals to their own. While the former seems noble, it undermines their integrity, leaving less of their energy, creativity, and essential Self to give to the organization, eventually leading them to sacrfice the organization to themselves - becoming parasites that detract from the real value of the whole.

Ed Morler’s work addresses both how a leader can best integrate his or her own values with the values of the organization and how to facilitate others to do the same. The more we take on The Leadership Integrity Challenge he describes, the more joy and fulfilment we can experience in our work and in our lives. Join us as we explore the relationship of Money, Mission, and Meaning, bringing profit and pleasure to the business of life.

Conscious business. At first, the words seem like oxymorons. What could be less conscious than market forces? What could be less interested in business than the heart and soul that gives meaning to our lives.

What is more common than the denunciation of large corporations for tax with reprehensible social repercussions all in the name of the almighty dollar? In the same vein, who isn’t familiar with the moans of the “starving artists” whose visions of beauty and harmony don’t find purchase in the capitalist/consumer marketplace?

However, when you look past the standard politically correct dialog about the evils of business, the situation is far more complex, and far more interesting. On the one hand, a business must provide a service that people value enough to pay for in order to succeed. On the other, we each work at business is in order to both earn money to provide for our values and needs, but also to use express our talents and gifts.

This blog will explore how we can each bring more caring, heart, adventure, and soul to our fiscal and financial realities, while bringing more practical, brass tax, bottom-line mentality to our personal and private lives. By integrating passion and purpose, professional and personal, money and meaning, we can revitalize every part of our lives and helped to create a world which we all want will. Welcome to Money, Mission, and Meaning: the blog.

Do you wonder…is this all there is? Have you struggled to find meaning in your career? Does your work/life balance feel out of whack? Everyone has the sense that there is a deeper level of satisfaction to be had, no matter how happy they are. Everyone wants greater meaning from work, more freedom around money and deeper connections in relationships. Join me each week on “Money, Mission & Meaning: Passion at Work, Purpose at Play” to explore the insights and practices that integrate money, mission and meaning to experience a more profound relationship to the mystery and miracle you call your life. Each week, I’ll interview a business leader actively expressing value-based principles in their business or personal lives, exploring such topics as visionary leadership, the power of integrity, purpose driven business, following your bliss, and much more. Imagine waking up each day naturally excited to get to work and just as excited to get home. Through simple but powerful ideas around abundance, inspiration, motivation, manifestation, ecology and intention, you can create synergy between purpose and profitability. Learn to apply the art and heart of business to every aspect of your experience, building an ever-deepening enjoyment of the business of life.