Mark Cuban said WHAT? | SDITalk.com/313

Mark Cuban said WHAT? Political correctness rears its ugly, stupid head again. Today, we take a brief break from our “Choosing the Right Tool” series to address some utterly foolish comments made by a normally reasonable and thoughtful person. I’m Bryan Ellis. This is episode #313 of Self-Directed Investor Talk.

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Hello, Self-Directed Investors, all across the fruited plane! Welcome to Episode #313 of Self-Directed Investor Talk, the SHOW OF RECORD for savvy self-directed investors like you, where each day, I help you to find, understand and profit from exceptional investments and strategies.

Today’s show notes, transcript and resources are available to you, at no cost and with my complements, over at SDITalk.com/313.

Yesterday we began to focus on the question of determining which type of self-directed account is better for you: the self-directed IRA or solo 401(k). We’re going to return to that tomorrow and likely for a couple of additional episodes as well, but something came up today in my news feed that I thought I’d address with you.

Mark Cuban – the businessman who famously became a billionaire when he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 – is someone to whom I pay attention and whose words are generally surprisingly grounded given that he is, after all, a billionaire. I respect that.

Furthermore, I know a lot of you respect him and his work, too. And you and I as self-directed investors are obligated to pay attention to smart people since we make our own investment decisions. Unfortunately, it looks like Mark Cuban’s thinking may now be muddled and more politically-oriented than business-oriented.

Case in point: A new article on Yahoo Finance called “Mark Cuban describes the best way to reduce wealth inequality”. I’ve linked to it today from SDITalk.com/313, be sure to check it out.

Now right away, whenever you see the words “wealth inequality”, you know someone is speaking to a political audience and not an investor- or business-oriented audience, because wealth inequality is a totally contrived problem.

On the surface, the words “wealth inequality” seem to mean that some people have more wealth than some other people. Yep, that’s true. And thank God for it. Those who do better than I do provide great inspiration, motivation and examples for me to up my game. Hopefully I provide a good example for those not at my level. That’s what “wealth inequality” really is: The scorecard of capitalism and the financial representation of dogged determination.

That’s capitalism at the core, and capitalism is a good thing. My model of wealth building and your model of wealth building – self-directed investing – depend on capitalism. Always remember that.

Now “wealth inequality” might represent an actual real problem, rather than a totally contrived one, but only if our economy was a zero-sum game. If, in other words, it was the case that every dollar I make means that you can’t make that dollar… well, in that case, the scarce supply of wealth might change the game. But that’s not reality. When another oil well is found, new wealth is discovered. When a new software program is developed that has commercial appeal, new wealth is created. Wealth in a capitalist economy like ours is not a zero-sum issue, but is simply a representation of the value of resources and ideas. There are zero circumstances under which it can be said that the fabulous wealth of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban has hurt my ability or your ability to become wealthy in any way. In fact, it’s likely that every one of them have IMPROVED your