As a person living, you will be in a variety of groups throughout your lifetime. Most of them are design to ensure you have extra support for example the church is moral supports; for some with extra disposable income – investment clubs will appear. For the elite, those who do not have to work and have a well above annual income – part of keeping the lifestyle is investments. In the book Secret Societies of America’s Elite written by Steven Sora published by Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, 2003 the Knights Templar and Masons have been a connector of America’s elite. If you were in, it was easier to amass greater fortunes. The way to be in was to be a merchant particularly an investor in the shipping business. The ships carried goods and services – soon of it legal and some of it illegal. Of the illegal side, slavery and opium were part of the freight which went around the world. If you think about the cocaine barons of the present time – the opium barons are now institutional in the US. Some of the biggest fortunes received healthy foundations to branch into other businesses including real estate, banking and insurance. The continuing wealth gave money to universities and museums to increase the goodwill of the families to the broader public.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, a book such as Secret Societies is an interesting read and shows how the myth of the US as open to everyone is not exactly true. It also shows or demonstrates how companies will use the resources of the state to increase or maintain their abilities to continue to deliver profits. There are many connections as long as the owners continue to be able to profit, connections are used. If you invest in an upstart it can show you how big the odds are against you. To shorten the odds, buy into the connections and let them work for you.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.