In 1964, I had a chance conversation with an economics student at Australian National University, in Canberra. In those days, economics students seemed to have been less blinkered than they are now, surprising though that may seem.
The student suggested that Australia follow the example of Kuwait, who in the fifties, started the world’s first Sovereign Wealth Fund, and diverted huge oil revenues into foreign investment, to supply income after oil reserves had been exhausted. Kuwait could become an investor nation, a Mustachian nation. He suggested that Australia do the same with its mining exports, (not large at that time), and also agricultural exports. Australia then and now, was not as well endowed as Kuwait, but he suggested that in, say, fifty years, Australia could become an investor nation, living off dividends from overseas, after the mines had become holes in the ground.
I remember the contempt in his voice when he considered the idea that the average Australian would ever understand this scheme, let alone do anything about it. Nearly fifty years later, it is obvious he was right, and while Australia now has a sovereign wealth fund, there is now no prospect of Australians giving the political support needed to divert money into foreign investment.
I was amazed by this scheme. I had discovered modernity, and had assumed that the only way forward was an automated economy with a small stable population, but the idea of an investor nation made me realise that there were other possibilities. It is now obvious that most people, anywhere in the world, will not cooperate in building an investor nations, so when investor nations appear, they can live off income from investment in other nations. Investment in foreign companies, and also foreign property, such as shopping malls and office blocks.
I had always known that there were individual investors, living quietly in suburbia, living off dividends, but I had not thought of an entire investor nation. Mustachian life relies on investment income, of course, and Mustachians can still be Mustachians if they work, say 20 hours a week. There is no need for Mustachians to live in a specialised investor nation, but it is an intriguing idea.
I still regard modernity as the main event, but I see that a truly advanced society could be both modernist and Mustachian, living off exports of advanced machinery, and also receiving investment income from abroad.
