Robert Kiyosaki's Swindle

Get Rich Quick schemes come in all shapes and colors and they extend beyond pyramid, ponzi, or shell games. Some are even just want to sell you a worthless book. Enter Robert Kiyosaki. Nearly ten years ago, John purchased a couple of his books and was impressed. A few months later, I read one and was instantly impressed as well. Oooh making money was so easy! Wow! You get excited. At the same time, I was getting excited, John was starting to think he was full of shit and, yes, John is right. Real Estate author John T Reed also thinks he's full of shit and has done a splenid job explaining why.

Now Kiyosaki is a columnists on Yahoo Finance and in an article he is claiming that poor people are evil. I invite anyone interested to read the whole article. My thoughts: So for someone who only claims to believe in only a "Great Spirit" clings greatly to one Parable in the Book of Matthew to judge the poor as evil. He then misinterprets the Parable (nor can he tie it into the messages of other parables.) Kiyosaki says the message is that poor are "evil and lazy", but "poor" is a relative term. (There are poor in Harlem, but they have electricty, TVs, and phones...compare that to the poor in Africa.) The man with only two talents is praised for turning into four and the praise he receives is no less than the man who turns his five into ten. However, by comparison, the man who started with two is poor compared to the man who started with five. It is the man who doesn't do anything with the talent he is given, whom is criticized. So the action, not result is what is being criticized.

As final note, he leaves a disclaimer that you may interpret differently. How nice. Can I now claim that Schindler's List was the best comedy ever but leave a note saying that you may have interpreted it differently. That'll make it all better. Wow, how grand!

If the No. 1 reason people aren't rich is because they're lazy, the No. 2 reason may be that they're also wicked....For now, this week I derive much of its inspiration from the Bible. Since money and religion are controversial subjects, I should clarify my religious position: I prefer the Native American Indian term "Great Spirit" as a more approachable reference to God...While I'm no Bible scholar, I'm going to use a passage from the New Testament book of Mathew to illustrate my point about wickedness and the lack of wealth. If I misinterpret its message or don't follow your interpretation I mean no harm, nor do I claim to speak for God.

I draw my politically incorrect message from the parable of a master who, before leaving to travel, gave one of his servants five talents (a valuable unit of currency), another servant two talents, and a third servant one talent. When the master returned, the first servant had doubled his money and gave his master 10 talents....The third servant was frightened of his master, so instead of multiplying the money he buried his single talent. To this servant the master said, "You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest."

The master then took the servant's one talent and gave it to the servant who had turned 5 talents into 10. The parable ends with these words: "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

My politically incorrect interpretation of this parable is that the poor are wicked and slothful -- in other words, evil and lazy. My favorite line from it is "Enter into the joy of your master." If your master is God, then God's joy is the abundance derived from making money, which in turn creates more abundance. If that means God doesn't like poor people, then so be it....But this isn't what the Parable of the Talents says; I interpret it to say that the poor are evil and lazy. Your interpretation may be different.... Kiyosaki on Yahoo Finance