The article is half a page long, but if you don’t feel like reading at the bottom of the page you have it in video.
It was in the last years of the last century when a friend confessed to me: «I was wrong. I invested in orange groves, when what I should have done is invest in housing.» That stuck with me; in fact I will always remember it. I was far from thinking about investing, but it caught my attention. Over time I’ve been thinking about what it’s like to speculate. That’s what my friend was trying to tell me.
Today I saw another friend and I saw that he was also caught in another game: Bitcoin. We were talking about interesting things (neurology, psychiatry or psychology), when I saw (he showed me on his mobile) the quotes on the spot of that currency. I watched the price go up and down, telling me how interesting it all was.
During the years of this century I have come to realize what speculation really is. People who, almost without realizing it, are showered with money and don’t know where it’s coming from. Those are the people who have ‘their businesses’ and find themselves with so much money that they don’t even know what to do with it. They are the ones who go to art auctions, investments in the stock market, real estate speculations, collectors, acquisitions of archaeological plunder… It is a form of gambling in which one gambles with leftover money. It is a kind of gambling addiction, problem gambling.
While some don’t know what it’s like to end up squeezing up as best they can, others are falling from the sky. This last friend complained that the State gives poor people some money so that they can survive even if it is in misery, while I, on the other hand, spoke to him of the great waste of the State, of the enormous expenditure of the Administration; be it the Royal House, politicians, arms companies, civil servants… I said to him, how was it possible that he emphasized that this expense is crumbs for the State and did not see the great vilification that everything else represented?
Well, focusing on reflection, we will see that lately we are realizing the price of rents and how difficult it is for young people to become independent and acquire a home; when we are seeing that vulture funds and tourist flats mean that many people have to live in ‘dormitory towns’ miles away from their workplaces. And why does this happen? Well, because there are ‘brains’ who have discovered that the business is in the brick and mortar.
But the most important thing: Today we have reflected on speculation, a few days ago we did so on corruption… We will continue to be aware of the great human flaws.
Until the next reflection.
Joan-Llorenç sincristal@hotmail.com