Most people know something about Sparta – for many years people like me knew of the myth or legend of a prince stealing another man’s wife (Helen of Troy) and a battle for her. There have been numerous movies on the theme and because the story is compelling there will be likely more. Eventually you might ask who are the Spartans? The book The Spartans by Paul Carledge published by The Overlook Press, NY, 2003 is one book to begin to look for answers. The Spartans were a city state in Ancient Greece who a particular interest in combat. From an early age all young males took part in exercises that lead to having core values of self-sacrifice, community endeavor and achievement against all odds. In the movie 300 – 300 Spartan warriors against a army of Persians, one of the warriors went told there were enough archers to block out the sun, replied good we will fight in the shade.

In the era of city states (rather than countries we now favor) the rulers had to balance both strong defenses at home and trying to expand their territories. One of the methods they did this was to show hereditary claim to the area. In a couple of cases, bones were discovered (no one really knows who they were) and claimed to be one of the adjacent lands. The bones were brought back to Sparta and a large ceremony were “properly buried”. It seems which worked in the past is still working today – the uses of both myth and propaganda which are designed to bring the whole under the government’s diplomatic-military-political sway. The reality of the myth of Helen was another country had the reason to go fight Sparta.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, we often think or believe some of what we do is relative recent events when the reality is people have been doing it for centuries. In terms of dividend producing stocks, investing in profitable stocks never goes out of style and breaks through the myth and propaganda of other types of investing. The system needs both but real wealth to the average person tends to come from the tried and true method – investing in great profitable companies.

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