This is not a self-help essay.

It’s an examination of why half the people in America, and a great many in the rest of the west, find themselves constantly miserable as well as in a constant struggle to barely survive. Even those with high incomes are frequently only a check (cheque) away from destruction.

Misery, Depression, Unhappiness — An Absense of Joy

Some people have the most terrible lives. Yet, despite that, they seldom focus on their personal situation. Yes, on occasion, their lives are too hard to ignore, and for a moment, they weep. …

The year was 1984. Yuppiedom was a thing. There was this joke going around about a young urban professional driving his Porshe in New York — his arm dangling out the window. A large truck drove by — too fast and too close — and took off the arm of that successful profiteer. “My Rolex! My Rolex is gone,” he yelled.

It was a mindset of money before anything else. Suddenly, the mixed economy I was accustomed to was denigrated by the media, and business became the holy grail of the late 20th century. I spoke to my late father…

From time to time I have written an article or two about how to write. There really isn’t much to it. There is, however, a fundamental difference in what I say and what other ‘writers’ say. I talk the very specific — the hard stuff. The others talk generalities like ‘You must write every day.’ Actually, you don’t have to write every day. I wrote for Hubpages for a couple of years. Those articles are still going strong — some have been at the top of Google for years, and I still earn a monthly income from them.

Essentially, if…

Just a short heads-up here. Medium has written to inform me that I am not in violation of their policies and suggested that I block those parties who accuse me of being so. As I have a legal background, and as I have worked as a writer and editor for half a century, plus I did a legal course at college, I am quite well versed in this respect.

For the record, defamation is when you verbally say something in public while libel is when you write erroneous things against someone. Nowhere have I gone on radio or TV to…

I know a fair number of successful people. To be honest, I don’t really know many who aren’t in the upper middle demographic and above — anymore. That’s partially because I grew up in that demographic and still retain some of my connections from it, and it’s partially because the way I speak and interact draws that demographic to me. Like draws like.

Most of these people don’t read, and they certainly don’t read articles on how to be successful. So why is that they they have been financially successful. …

Conversation is a strange thing. There are some topics that one shouldn’t talk about ever, and then there are those topics that seem to create immediate bonds — even with complete strangers.

When I came back to South Africa nearly six years ago, I wasn’t sure what I would find. I was delighted that the country now had a middle class black population, and I thought the country had vastly improved since the time I had left twenty years earlier.

Of course, I left for a combination of reasons — I couldn’t find work, I wasn’t happy, and I was…