Peak-Oil Dad, Post-Oil Dad

Regular reader Leo B. was kind enough to point me toward Peak Oil's newest convert, famed writer/educator on personal finance Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki is most notable as the author of the runaway bestseller "Rich Dad Poor Dad", a book which (along with "The Wealthy Barber") was a perennial holiday gift by many an Investment Advisor to their best customers. I haven't read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" in many years, and while I would summarize it now in a very different way today than I would have then, nevertheless I have to admit I really liked it when I read it.

In a nutshell, what Kiyosaki tried to relate is that if you want to achieve material success you need to think like a rich person thinks. So from a certain perspective "Rich Dad Poor Dad" was sort of the poor man's guide to competing in a hegemonic culture, "...arguing that "old" advice -- get a good job, work hard, save money, get out of debt, and invest for the long term -- is obsolete and flawed". Kiyosaki learned "from the streets" so to speak how the rules of Wealth worked--for instance, that "rich people don't work for money, they make money work for them", and also that "rich people don't work for other people, they hire other people", etc. And while it would be wrong to say that Kiyosaki believed there was anything wrong with "family values", education, high principles and ideals (the "common sense" views espoused by his Poor Dad), he was certainly teaching his readers that you shouldn't blindly believe that those things will be rewarded in our present culture--that in fact they may actually only serve to further enslave you to it.

But yesterday Kiyosaki, in a regular piece he writes for Yahoo! Finance, was actually introducing the concept of Peak Oil to his disciples....and presumably also how rich people will need to think as the world begins to crumble around them. Kiyosaki doesn't offer any golden nuggets in this first article--in fact, he really only states the obvious observation that owning oil will make many people wealthy. But he does make this noteworthy assessment:

"The problem today is that oil companies are too short-sighted, the environmentalists too far-sighted, and politicians only concerned with being elected. As a result, there will be a gap between the end of oil and a conversion to less destructive forms of energy. In this gap, all hell may break loose.

In my next article, I'll go into what I'm doing to prepare for the gap, as well as why I believe the gap can't be avoided. In other words, it will not be 1973-1974, or stagflation, all over again. I believe it will be the end of civilization as we know it -- and possibly the birth of a brave new world."

I find this little blurb very interesting, because it hints that Kiyosaki really does grasp our true situation: that what we're ultimately facing is an epochal transformation of our culture--of our very way of being. But also that the long moment of praxis we're going to encounter in the near-term will undoubtedly feel, as Kunstler dubs it, like "The Long Emergency".

So it should be somewhat interesting to watch and see if Kiyosaki will guide his readers beyond the "How can I profit in the age of Peak Oil?" trap that so many wealthy and successful people who are waking up to our problems are becoming stuck in; to see if he fully grasps that when the culture changes, then so too do all the old rules for success that served to define that culture. In other words, in this "brave new world" he's hinting at, a world in which our material culture itself will be subsumed, and in a time where "progress ceases to progress" as it were and instead begins to backslide upon itself, where diminishing returns give way to actual diminishing capital--in such a time we're going to discover that all those tools for success that Rich Dad taught you will gradually begin to fail more often than they succeed. And eventually, of course, they will become irrelevant altogether. The new culture is going to demand new qualities and character from us than the old one did, and thus it's going to reward distinctly new ways of being.

Still, seeing someone of Kiyosaki's popularity address our issues square in the face like this tells me yet again that the information is out there. People who want to know what is going on, who want to be ready for the cultural shift of the milennium, have all the facts and evidence that they need. We lowly bloggers have done our job, and the full recognition of Peak Oil is out there. So now the only thing we need to fear is fear itself, because fear leads individuals and even whole societies into denial.

Comments

[Montysano]

I've been amazed the last few months to see PO leap into the general consciousness, and indeed it's been the bloggers who have helped the process along. On one of the main news channels the other night (CNN? MSNBC? Not Fox, though), there was a story on gas prices. Oil production is barely meeting demand, sez the talking head, and may soon fall behind.

James Wolcott of Vanity Fair is on the case, and even the Drudge Report, for chrissakes, is linking to PO news.

Do we see any change in American's behavior? Nada. Moreover, do we hear a single sensibe word our leaders, whether Dem or Republican? Do we detect any sign of true leadership? Nada.

Since Steven quoted Kunstler, I'll feel free to as well: I spent most of this week in the heart of Clusterfuck Nation, on the formerly lovely Alabama Gulf Coast. I was there on business, just doing my small part in despoiling the place. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, 96 degree heat in mid-April, and billions of dollars of nightmarish development. It's one thing to use up our ancient natural resources in such a profligate way, but to piss them away on such........crap. The whole place felt doomed.

As a tonic, I took the scenic route north through the country (I'm a blue highway junkie), through small communities, many of them African American. Poor, yes, but there were chickens in the yards, a couple of hogs out back, and fine big gardens. Kevin over at Crytogon has some great perspective on the country life, on who we used to be.

[Seven Generations]

Yes, Kiyosaki, find a way to blame the environmentalists: the ones who warned of oil depletion and global warming for decades. Sorry to disturb your comfort level, but sustainability requires far-sightedness.

[Elizabeth Branford]

Well blaming solves very little except to clarify who we should be angry at for the past which cannot be undone, we have to find common ground despite our attachment to righteousness.

One thing I love about Kunstler is that he does not place everything in the hands of leaders but also points out the role of americans, consumaculture, their obsession with suburbia, and their denial of those we suffer at the expense of our material gains. Dollar hegemony and peak oil will force a confrontation.

Yes, many of us on the "left" have been warning of global warming, etc. but many on the left have also participated in the rampant consumption that has fed the fire. We all need to look at our behaviors in the context of this urgency.

[Anonymous Hero]

Wasn't this the guy telling everyone to buy real estate?

[Peter]

Yes, it was.

[Slick]

The thing that scares me on profits in a post peak world is the dollar..If it goes south..then even buying oil stocks or selling stocks short wont matter much.
I have read the writters books..Pretty good..He even has a book about Rich dad Prophecy..he predicted in that book a depression around 2010-2020 time...I wonder how the 2nd edition will be to that with the big kicker PO..and the decline will happen the smae time. He stated in that book the reason for the collapse in 2010-2020 will be becasue boomers will take out of the markets and not enough young folks to fill the gap...Boy I feel next decade will be very eventful.

[Seven Generations]

Bush says: "business is business and business must grow"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060426/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

When was the last time anyone saw the animated television special "The Lorax?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax