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1/I wanted to share a story of how humanity can shine through in a capitalistic system, my very close friend is a teacher (a lawyer as well). A few years back his state gutted teacher pay and pensions and found he needed to do more to ensure his families future
2/So he began buying rental properties, aimed at blue collar affordability. He endeavored to invest in them, clean them up, make them safer all while making them a better and more attractive place to live (also increasing their value)
3/I began investing with him taking 20% stakes to allow him the capital to grow. He went half time teaching which was a HUGE loss for his kids but hey that is what happens when the very best aren't paid. (that is a whole nother conversation)
4/My friend puts one of his main goals, along with making money, to improve tenants lives. Fast forward to this crises. He developed a plan to allow families that struggle to pay the rent to have forbearance for a few months, if they came to him. Also waived late fees
5/they would then have 6 months to pay it back after a few months grace, interest free. In addition this saturday he is using some of this months rent monies to buy the whole building spaghetti dinners from his favorite local restaurant, supporting both the business and tenants
6/The point of this is if businesses reflect the human values that we commonly share, capitalism is unapologetically good for people and you can really put stakeholders interests together. My distributions will be light for a few months but people want to live in his buildings
7/The further corporations managers are removed from human values and solely follow the morals only of the capital the more estranged people feel from capitalism. Some larger companies really try to keep this connection, others not so much
8/A company that follows only the morals of capital, ie maximize only shareholder value, CAN do very good things for both the owners of capital and people in general if there products make peoples lives better. Rentiers not so much (landlords need not be rentiers)
9/The times we are going through makes you stop and think about what we do and why and I am proud of my friend and the focus he has on helping people while making money as well for his family and his partners
10/I am not intending to be controversial here just sharing and hoping these reflections make you think more as well.
