Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter - Friday Edition.

In this email:

• Considering the meaning behind common sayings

• Policy to improve the overall wealth of society

• Winston Churchill's opinion on anger

There's power to words

This section highlights some common sayings that we take too lightly.

Pay attention... In the present day, the greatest and most sought after commodity on earth is attention... Your attention. Ads, short form content, the news, podcasts, Netflix... everyone and everything is trying to hijack your attention. Why? Because where attention goes, money flows. A 30 second ad at the Superbowl was worth 7 million dollars because it guarantees the most attention. Remember that attention is always designed for the good and benefit of that to which the attention is given. Resist and cultivate it to be of use to you and your goals.

Spend time... When idly spending time with someone, you are doing just that - spending time... the most irreplaceable resource you have. Time is the only thing you can never get back. Think twice when someone asks for your time, and decide if it is worth it. Just like we can spend money on frivolous things or we can invest it, the same goes for time. Think about how you spend your time daily and decide whether each action is an investment in your future self, or a one time spend. Not all wasted time is a waste... but there must be balance.

The present... Similar to the previous point of spending time, the greatest present you can give someone is your presence and being truly present with them. Being present with someone means giving them both your time and attention. Everyday, every minute, strive to be present and live in the current moment. The present is always being given and can never be taken away - except by yourself, through a lack of appreciation.

Trickle-up Trickle-down Economic Policies

Trickle-down economic policies are benefits to the upper class that are supposed to trickle-down to help the lower and middle classes and grow the economy as a whole. These are implemented as tax cuts to corporation and to the rich. Throughout the last two decades, North-American governments have mainly been implementing trickle-down policies, but the economy has not shown great improvement. The income and wealth gap has been consistently widening. It makes no sense why this would be a good policy. For example, Thomas Sowell explains in his book Trickle Down, "Why would anyone advocate that we "give" something to A in hopes that it would trickle down to B? Why in the world would any sane person not give it to B and cut out the middleman?".

Trickle-up economics is the opposite. Benefits are given to the lower income individuals in the society in order to boost the wealth of the entire society. Most of the money undoubtably still trickles back up to the upper classes who own most of the assets, but it is nonetheless an improvement over the trickle-down approach. Examples of this include the stimulus given out during the pandemic. Where did most of the 600$ a week go? Right back to the rich, whether in terms of profits from spending on basic needs and products or by investing into the stock market.

Quote I Want To Share

Two quick tips for dealing with anger and hardship:

• The 5 by 5 rule: if it wont matter in five years, don't spend more than five minutes worrying about it.

• Depending on whether you believe in fate or not, you can also take the stoic approach and remember that everything that happens is meant to happen. If you could not handle it, it would not happen to you.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas