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28. Give Him The Business

I've pointed out elsewhere that everything is getting better. That's just an observable fact. For a fuller appreciation of this fact, talk to your grandma about 'the good old days' sometime but even in your own lifetime you can see the fantastic improvements.

Adam Smith in his 1776 masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations originated the famous phrase, "The invisible hand.(of progress)". "...he intends only his own gain...and he is led by an invisible hand to produce an end which was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society." And again, "whenever commerce is introduced to any country probity and punctuality always accompany it".

I submit that the engine that drives the improvement of mankind is Commerce. It is not religion. It is not politics. It is not wars and it is not dreamy, wishful thinking. Improvement comes, and this is very obvious to me, from hard working, LOGICALLY THINKING traders.

Let's say you want to improve someone (or some group). Pick anyone you want from a Neanderthal Man to a ghetto kid (of any color). How do you do it?

(Please remember in your calculations that every man, without exception, acts and decides in what he perceives as his best interests. Our glorious United States of America was founded on that incontrovertible datum.)

What you do is give him the business: involve him in commerce. That's right, commerce, as in trading, bartering: buying and selling. And that's because the basic principle underlying commerce is value for value. I give you something and you give me something in return. It doesn't matter what your something is and it doesn't matter what my something is. What matters is that each trader thinks he is gaining value in the trade.

Now unless I hand you something with my right hand and simultaneously take something with my left hand (as in bartering situations) something very important must occur even before we swap our stuff: we must trust each other. We must, regardless of what is being traded, trust that the other will, at the very least, make the trade. When you examine trading closely you observe that one must believe/trust in a boatload of other things.

When I give the Latina (in McDonald's) my buck and she gives me a dollar sandwich we both think we are gaining in value. The Latin lovely may think of it in terms of her continued employment and I might think of it as quelling my appetite but we both think it's a good deal. She has to trust in her probables (there are no certainties on this planet) and I must trust in mine. She must believe (trust) that satisfied customers keep her in her employed and I must believe that the sandwich will at least slow down the growling in my belly.

There's more. I have to believe that the food is non-toxic, prepared properly, of satisfactory quality, and that nobody will steal my parked car, etc., etc. She has to believe that I won't shoot her, that my money is not counterfeit, etc., etc. and that, if satisfied, I will return.

Please note that the motivation, the self-interest, of each party is different. BUT the characteristics of a trade are the characteristics of a civilized man. All the best characteristics of man must be present for trading to occur. Honesty, dependability, courtesy, etc., must be present to some degree. Goodwill must be present in all trades for it only takes one unfair trade, one rip-off, to stop commerce. And once that trust is broken it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repair it. A civilized man realizes that giving value for value in the act of trading results in successful trading. Honesty really is the best policy.

Please note that what is being traded is irrelevant. Slaves, drugs, assassinations and other horrors are also traded but even in this despicable traffic the traders must be civilized with each other in the act of trading. The trading itself must be honorable. And, of course, any civilized society punishes those who trade in horrors.

You also have to give the business to yourself when you get to your personal goal of happiness, (defined usually in terms of affection, respect, peace-of-mind and all the other intangibles). And there the mechanism and discipline of trading really becomes sharply in focus when you ask yourself the question, "Will doing X get me the Y that I want?" You must use logical analysis to evaluate your emotional values. (I most strongly recommend Byron Katie's, Loving What Is to aid your analysis.)

The successful traders/businessmen/merchants ARE the civilizing angels. They are the ones that are continually improving our lives even if they don't know it.

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