Value(s)

 

Since weaving was, for me, not a hobby but a chosen profession, I had to spend time learning a lot more about how 'money' works than I knew when I began.

I had known small business owners (my mother being one of them, eventually) so I had a peek at what they needed to know, and do, and set about learning more myself.  I had also worked for a year at a 'credit bureau' where we gave credit information about people who were applying for credit.  I got first hand experience with how credit rating is used when someone applies for a loan.  I understood how important it is to keep a 'clean' credit rating, how to price my own work, what I would accept as payment, and then how I would/could process those payments - from making sure I had a cash 'float' when doing craft fairs (hardly anyone had a credit card in the early 70s), balance a till, give change back, neatly counted out, not shoved across the counter or crunched into my hand, not knowing if the cashier had actually given me the proper amount.  (Yes, I'm that old.)

But when your efforts are in creating product - by yourself - you learn very quickly how to price an item, how you cannot be intimidated by the customer into giving them a 'discount' that you can't afford to give, and so on.  

I've had other weavers copy my work.  I've had 'industrial' businesses try to put me down by saying they could out produce me (true), but I pointed out that my market share was so tiny it would not be profitable to copy what I did.  (Sweet summer child had no answer to that.)

Stories?  Yes, I've got stories.  I wrote about them in A Thread  Runs Through It.  (Available in my ko-fi shop as a pdf download.)

Long story short - I learned what was of value - and what was less valuable.

It is with some interest, then, I picked up PM Carney's book "Value(s)".  It is dense, about 550 pages, and it is an in depth look at financial considerations, not particularly for individuals, but for societies and governing bodies.  

I was aware of some of the history of the development of 'money' but he has provided a very detailed look at that history.  He has looked at various 'theories' of finance, not in detail, but more a look at the societal values that each theory attempts to address.  Which makes the title of his book a double entendre (so to speak).

What do *I* as an individual value?  And what do I value in the making of, and the selling of, my weaving?

It has been encouraging me to look more closely at my life as a weaver.  And how to 'weight' my choices based on my personal core 'values'.

I won't say it's an easy read.  But it is something I wish more politicians would grapple with instead of jumping head over heels into the Ayn Rand theory of economics.

When I read that book, I did so because so many people were reading and recommending everyone pay attention to what she was saying.  I picked up a copy and started reading.  Now, in those days, once I opened a book the onus was on me to finish it.  It was not the first, but one of the few books I simply closed and decided I didn't need to spend *my* time reading it.  So, I never have.  And over all, what I remember is that the 'people' in her book were so...'not nice'... that I didn't want to spend that much of my life trying to figure out why I was wasting my time continuing to read it.

I set out to 'succeed' in my own fashion, not anyone else's.  

I think I talk about this incident in the book, but I'll re-cap it here.

In the 1980s the government of the day set up a tax deferment scheme.  People with 'lots' of money (more than me, at any rate) could 'invest' in the scheme and when they 'lost' money on the investment, they could get a tax rebate.  As near as I can remember.  Because not only did I not make enough money to make the 'investment', I couldn't afford to lose money and then claim that loss back from the government.  (I may not be remembering the details correctly - it was 30+ years ago.)

We went to a 'cocktail party' where most of the people there made buckets more money than I did, and a group of men formed a circle and were loudly announcing how many 1000s of $ they had 'made' on this tax deferment scheme.  

At one point I wanted to clarify something so I asked a question.  The men were startled - why wasn't I in the kitchen or passing a tray of hors d'oerves around?  But one of them deigned to answer my question.  I asked if the point was to invest, *lose* money, then claim the loss from the government (or whatever the process was).  They confirmed that it was a tax deferral and they would save money on their income tax return.

"Huh", I said.  "I always thought that if I had to pay income tax, that meant I was doing something correctly."

Because in *my* mind, if I was making enough money that the government was going to take some of it for things like roads, infrastructure, schools, healthcare - I needed to pay towards those benefits that I used all the time.

They stared at me like I had 3 heads.  I looked down at my glass, which was empty, and wandered away to get another drink and find some people that I wanted to talk with.

So let's just say I'm not a tiny bit impressed by how many trillionaires we have nowadays.  I barely knew anyone who was considered a 'millionaire' when I was in my 20s.  There were a few, and most of them were quite 'nasty' - remember, I spent a year seeing people's personal credit history.  I *knew* which businessmen paid their contractors and employers, and how many did not.  (Sound familiar?)

Some bragging about how wealthy they were and prancing around in fancy cars, buying up land to build a mansion on?  How does that Shania Twain song go?  That don't impress me much.

So I look back at my life and see there were 'failures'.  But I never tried to cheat anyone.  There will no doubt be some who will say that I have.  But you'd have to know *my* side of the story.  

When anyone who publicly tried to 'shame' me by saying I had cheated them?  Quickly found out that since they had gone 'public' I found no problem responding publicly.  

In response to a social media post, Mr. Trump once again called Canadians 'nasty' and the 'worst people to deal with'.  I commented that while Canadians have a reputation of being 'polite' and more milquetoast than 'strong'. we can hold a grudge as hard as a bear hangs onto honey.  

Wayne Dyer used to say that someone else's opinion is none of your business.  So I check my values from time to time.  Because *my* values *are* my business.

Yup.  Still there.  I get my accountant to figure out how much in taxes we owe, and then we pay that.  Goodness knows the past 20 years I have more than used up what I paid into the health care coffers via my taxes.  It's only fair I keep paying my taxes and try to help others who may need it.

Have more than enough?  Build a longer table rather than a wall...

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