Are you informed?

“Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.”
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 – 1964)

? ????

“Knowledge is power.” You must have heard this expression a thousand times and it is basically true. Then how “powerful” are you and what do you really know about subjects that matter to you?

How knowledgeable are you about Money, Taxes, Technology, Healthcare, Environment, Politics?
Do you know enough about money to invest it wisely? On what side of the digital divide do you stand? Can you fix a simple computer problem? Do you believe in climate change? Or is it a “hoax”? Do you know who your Congressman is? And who are the bad guys in Washington? The Republicans? The Democrats? The Ecologists? All of them?

The awful, pathetic truth is that generally speaking we know very little about what matters most to us and the puppeteers at the top are very careful to keep us in the dark.
“Trust me” is a very popular saying in Washington.

Facts and statistics are like gold nuggets. They are precious but only the well informed know where to pan for it and how to put it to good use.
Today though, thanks in great part to Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs the computer is your best defensive tool. Before believing anything that you hear or read, it would greatly behoove you to do a little research and check the authenticity of those assertions.

“Be skeptical. Check the author. Check the publisher. Check the sources.”

There are a few non-partisan Fact Checking Websites (Politifact, Factcheck.org, and the Washington Post‘s Fact Checker among them) that can help you to do so.

If you are an average fellow and if you suddenly hit the lottery’s piñata, you are immediately wading in quicksand. What are you going to do with all that dough? Buy a bunch of cars and expensive presents for family and friends? Take a long vacation?
And whom can you really trust to steer you right? A friend, a lawyer, your mistress?

When you come into money, “friends” pop up around you like mushrooms after a spring rain. And some can be very poisonous.

To survive in this dog-eat-dog environment you need protection and your best protection is education. The more you know about a subject, the less appetizing you become to the sharp teeth swindlers circling around you.

Learning is a never-ending process and it is your best life saving jacket.

Alain

PS: If you feel like it, you can post a personal comment below by clicking on “Reply“.