From Minimum Wage to Wealth in 10 Years: Is It Possible?
Income and Wealth by David Parker-Volume One.
In the Tradition of Andrew Carnegie, Gospel of Wealth
, and Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
San Francisco thought leader, David Parker, shares his scholarly inquiry into economic principles and the creation of Wealth
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After two challenging and disruptive years, millions of Americans are desperately searching for wisdom and insight to help them rise above their financial problems. Fortunately – in the tradition of the wealthy American “titan of industry” Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill, author of the timeless classic, Think and Grow Rich — entrepreneur and lifelong educator David Parker offers a remarkable book. In this book, Parker puts in historical context principles on which he has built a successful career as an entrepreneur, investor, and political economist in “INCOME AND WEALTH: David Parker Essays – Volume One.”
When he began his teaching career, Parker broke with conventional wisdom. He chose a different path from the majority of his colleagues. Rather than place his faith and future in the teachers’ union, or government, Parker’s intellectual curiosity drove him to explore why government intervention in any aspect of our life – from education to healthcare – is doomed to failure, and how individual action, irrespective of one’s income, can lead to wealth. Some might label his political views, especially his disdain for government intervention, “conservative,” but Parker calls himself a “classical liberal” – adamant that citizens should not be forced to support programs inconsistent with social, political, and economic freedom. The result of Parker’s scholarly inquiry into the proper role of government in our lives is Income and Wealth, post-graduate 35,000 hours of annotated reading of the world’s foremost experts on the subject of the political economy including Aristotle, Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand.
Known for his “unconventional wisdom,” Parker shares common ground with many individuals currently identified as “Progressives,” in his belief that virtually everyone – even those earning minimum-wage income – must have the opportunity to create wealth. What Parker prescribes is not easy, in that most people in this country live beyond their means, but it certainly is effective. He urges all everyone to save half their annual income, then invests, with leverage, in an income-producing asset – one a year for 10 years. “Even those not especially creative or brilliant,” he says, “will be financially independent in ten years.”
New Podcast Series – “A San Francisco Conservative”
Scheduled to coincide with the publication of David Parker’s playfully titled newest book, A San Francisco Conservative, a new podcast series sharing that title launched in June 2022. Each episode of this series will showcase Parker’s views on the proper role of government and how individuals can arrange for the principles of a free market economy to work in their favor. The podcast’s co-host, longtime journalist Tom Martin, has noted that “David Parker’s scholarly approach to the study of political economy provides a much-needed historical context to important topics dominating the news, including progressives’ call for dramatically increased government spending.”
A Sampling of David Parker’s Views
As the author shares in Income and Wealth, individual responsibility and initiative are essential to achieving financial success – and, in fact, are the only path to this goal. As readers discover, Parker not only presents a compelling case for the benefits of free market economics, but he also shares a step-by-step plan for financial prosperity.
As “a classical liberal,” Parker believes government should stick to its foundation of protecting, not providing social, political, and economic freedom. “These freedoms are fundamentally interconnected. The degree to which government restricts one freedom, for example, economic freedom through a policy of rent control, is the degree to which it restricts the other two. Further, Parker says, it is important to remember that this nation was built on this principle.
Deviating from the U.S. Constitution, as Parker says, “written on a single page,” allows the government to complicate issues – as it interferes in free markets.”
In addition, Parker notes America’s business community has no lack of ingenuity when it comes to circumventing government policy and law – regardless of the political party pushing for regulation. To support his position, he notes that in any field or program, “when the government is involved, it costs more – two or three times what it would cost if left to a market solution.” If healthcare was a market commodity, Parker notes, “consumers would bargain for the best price, just as they bargain for everything else, and the sky-high cost of health care would drop 66%.”
Government intervention in our nation’s education system has produced a similarly disastrous result, Parker says – and, again, shares common ground with Progressives in calling for action to correct this crisis. In an interesting twist that might surprise his fellow conservative thinkers, Parker sides with Progressive politicians Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in calling America’s student debt situation a full-scale crisis. As was frequently mentioned during recent Presidential debates, student debt is a huge pressure on millions of young people just entering the workforce. Parker notes that it is a government subsidy of our nation’s colleges that allowed administrators at those institutions to lose any ability to budget properly — which would bring prices back down to earth.
After reading this important new book, readers will have no doubt that “income” and “wealth” are entirely different matters, and that income has no bearing upon one’s ability to achieve wealth.
About Author David Parker
David Parker began his career in education at the age of 24 and served students of San Francisco’s inner-city public elementary schools for 40 years as a music teacher, followed by 10 years as a volunteer. While pursuing his career in education, Parker became a very successful real estate investor. It was a success in business that focused his writing, teaching, and career as a professional musician. Parker’s career as a musician is similarly impressive. He spent 20 years as a member of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, then 20 years as leader of the Dave Parker Sextet, which twice headlined the San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Festival.
As Income and Wealth approached publication, Parker was already hard at work on his next book. His thoughtful essays have been featured in The Economist, The Financial Times, and prestigious law journals. In addition to being an author, entrepreneur, and investor, David Parker is a proud father and grandfather. His mother, Gertrud Parker, served as a powerful inspiration, as she became late in life an international artist as well as a civic leader in San Francisco. She passed away in 2021 at age 96. David Parker, her son, is still a young 75.
To learn more about David Parker, including his essays and music, visit:
https://davidparkeressays.com/ and https://daveparkersextet.com/
