Jonathan Hoeng is the proverbial \u201ccapitalist pig.\u201d He is the twenty-something author of a personal finance primer called \u201cGreed is Good: The Capitalist Pig Guide to Investing.\u201d He is also a radio talk show host and commodities trader. The central concept behind his claim to fame is the slick marketing of a hip and defiant brand of capitalism. Mr. Hoeng basically intends to make capitalism look cool, socially redeeming, and alluring to the Generation Xers.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hoeng has hit upon a truly worthwhile project. Capitalists should be proud and unapologetic. It should be cool to be an unabashed capitalist. We should push this popular marketing of capitalism even further, so that no one will ever feel ashamed to openly speak of money in gratifying terms.<\/p>\n
After all, the late Deng Xiao Ping, China\u2019s former Communist Party leader, already declared that \u201cTo get rich is glorious.\u201d Yet today many Americans still think of money in crass, crude and vulgar terms–as something not to be openly striving for.<\/p>\n
Yet nearly half of all Americans are stock holders. Most working Americans have 401 (k) plans, Individual Retirement Accounts, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, money market accounts, real property, or other appreciating assets. We are all capitalists now.<\/p>\n
So why be ashamed of it? Why downplay our lust for material possessions?<\/p>\n
It is time that the mutual fund industry takes notice–and immediately adapts to this emerging capitalist pig trend. Mutual funds should advertise more honestly, in keeping with this newfound love of capitalist piggery.<\/p>\n
Some funds should change their names, for example. Although we already have names like \u201cThe Profit Value Fund,\u201d we need to go even further and come up with names like \u201cThe Profit Motive Fund,\u201d or \u201cThe Greed Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
And why not call a spade a spade? Why not, for example, just say \u201cThe Fidelity Junk Bond Fund\u201d? Why bother to use \u201cHigh Yield\u201d or other euphemisms?<\/p>\n
And what is this business of \u201chigh net worth individuals\u201d? It seems that every time I read a mutual fund prospectus, some reference is made to certain \u201chigh net worth individuals.\u201d Why not just say \u201crich people\u201d or wealthy\/affluent individuals? Why be sanitary about it, as if there were something inherently dirty about making money or being wealthy?<\/p>\n
This is not like \u201ccollateral damage\u201d in military campaigns, now is it?<\/p>\n
Or how about \u201cThe Corrupt Government Municipal Bond Fund\u201d? \u201cThe Pornographic Sector Fund\u201d (specializing in the hot new erotic growth industry)? \u201cThe Russian Mafia Growth and Income Fund A\u201d? (full load) \u201cThe Miller-Stayman Sweatshop Obsession Fund B\u201d?<\/p>\n
The possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jonathan Hoeng is the proverbial \u201ccapitalist pig.\u201d He is the twenty-something author of a personal finance primer called \u201cGreed is Good: The Capitalist Pig Guide to Investing.\u201d He is also a radio talk show host and commodities trader. The central concept behind his claim to fame is the slick marketing of a hip and defiant brand of capitalism. Mr. Hoeng basically intends to make capitalism look cool, socially redeeming, and alluring to the Generation Xers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}