Showing posts with label capital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capital. Show all posts

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Day 120: The Paranoia Series - How Cognitive Disinformation creates Paranoia part 1


In the Paranoia Research Series - I will be walking a series on 'Cognitive Disinformation and how this creates Paranoia'
Firstly I would like us to look at a broader definition of Paranoia as not just an experience of anxiety and fear, but the underlying aspects and thought process behind how a person develops a particular Paranoia.
For example I will draw from the following blog - a definition of 'Paranoia'

Day 395: Paranoia: the Home of Human Reason – Part One
http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/05/day-395-paranoia-home-of-human-reason.html

"We are now at the Beginning stages of Placing into Context one of the Mechanisms that Influence Everyone’s life on Earth without Anyone being Aware of it - these Mechanisms are Not Yet Understood or Even Researched.
So First we have to Place into Context and into Relevance the Structural Design of What we are Looking at when we are looking at Paranoia.
Paranoia is Just a ‘pretty word,’ Meaningless in a way because Conveniently anything that seems to be ‘Abnormal’ may be classified as Paranoia, so it Needs to have a Word that is More Specific. Paranoia comes from the ‘Para-Noise’, the Paranoise comes from the Paranormal, the Paranormal comes from the Parapsychology and the Parapsychology is the Study of ‘Strange Events’ . But Not really – it is just Studying things that you Cannot Really Physically Touch like Ghosts and Thoughts, because Thoughts are like Ghosts: they are here now and then they’re Gone - in a Few Hours You Will Not be able to Remember the Exact Thought you had, you’ll be able to say “I Thought About” but You will Not Be Able to Recall the Exact Thought and Have it in Exactly the Same Way – also when you are Thinking about Something and Specially during the stage of the Developing Paranoia, the Thought will Repeat itself but In that Process, the Thought will Develop. So the Thought will be Changing and Progressively become More Obsessive and It Will Move You as the One having the ‘Paranoise’ the Paranoid Thought more and more to the Center of the Thought Convincing you that ‘the Thought is Right’ and you will so Change even Your Memory Eventually Claiming that ‘You are Right.’ It is a Fascinating thing that this Happens over and over and over again – and yet, our Psychology is not yet Researching this - it has not even Categorized it correctly because in a way Parapsychology is the Study of the ‘Thought Mind’ – that means Things like Paranoia, because it falls in the same Category as Conspiracy and Ghosts and in the same category as ‘Life After Death’ because it all falls within the things that You Cannot See. "
Paranoia particularly Induced through Thought and thus through Memory and thus through Vision – Television, Stories, Conspiracies, Education – that is all Paranoia, that is all Parapsychology because You Can’t Really Touch it. When that Paranoia becomes Physical, it becomes Psychological because it then would Become a Possession for Real where the Person for instance Believes ‘They Speak to Angels’ or ‘They Speak to their Loved Ones’ or ‘They Speak to JF Kennedy’ whatever ! The Fact of the Matter is that At this Stage, the Whole Preparation Stage that normally would have Happened through Meditation, through the Parapsychological Time-Frame of the Mind would be Forgotten."
So, what we draw from the above blog excerpt is our understanding of the elements, influences and inserts into the mental design of the individual which eventually leads the being to manifest themselves into Paranoia as the repetition of thoughts about a specific topic - where you are now completely possessed by and through repetition of pictures, thoughts, emotion and feeling stimulus - which you then believe is real - due to the strength and consistency at which these stimulus are repeated into your perceptual reality. Therefore we obviously see ourselves becoming living forms of 'paranoia' about most aspects of our lives - where we allowed ourselves to participate in and follow thoughts and emotion feeling reactions over months or years until we are convinced by these repeating thoughts and then believe 'it must be real'. This is how advertisements, the media and entertainment directs the public towards outcomes desires by specific parties such as consumerism, politics etc.
So on this topic - I will be addressing the Cognitive Disinformation as the movement, manipulation and repetition of information- which is presented in specific ways which the conveyer know and probably ahs studied - ac cording to how the human thinks and feels. So if you understand how a human beliefs, fears, thinks, rationalises and becomes addicted to specific energetic experiences, such as is used in consumerism by corporations - then you as the Cognitive Disinformer-  will understand how to develop and manipulate public thought according to your desires outcome."
So the question here is who becomes a 'Cognitive Disinformer - let us look at the definition of Cognitive Disinformation together with an example - after which I will select one aspect of Cognitive Disinformation to explore/expand on within this Blog.

The Problem:


Excerpt taken from:
 http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Disinformation

UforiasSecret"Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false information. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or propagation of malicious rumours and fabricated intelligence. In the context of espionage or military intelligence, it is the spreading of deliberately false information to mislead an enemy as to one's position or course of action. It also includes the distortion of true information in such a way as to render it useless.
Disinformation techniques may also be found in commerce and government, used by one group to try to undermine the position of a competitor. It in fact is the act of deception and blatant false statements to convince someone of an untruth
Disinformation differs from propaganda in that its true source is concealed, and it usually involves some clandestine action. Unlike propaganda and Big Lie techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions.
Another technique of concealing facts, or censorship is also used if the group can affect such control. When channels of information cannot be completely closed, they can be rendered useless by filling them with disinformation, effectively lowering their signal-to-noise ratio.
The Cold War made disinformation a recognized military and political tactic, though disinformation is generally more subtle and designed to remain unnoticed by the target audience.
Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, which is not deliberate; i.e., the person or news source forwarding the information doesn't know it's not true and/or actually believes it; thus, disinformation can be relayed as misinformation if the one relaying the message is not aware that the originator of the message deliberately manufactured false information and offered it up for distribution. Whether the target of such an attack is to mislead the end user of the information or if the disinformation is meant to destroy the credibility of those gullible enough to relay it (usually news agencies) and not really caring what damage it does to the ultimate recipient must be judged on a per case basis."
Examples of disinformation
The classic example of disinformation was during the Second World War, leading up to the D-Day landings, when British intelligence convinced the German Armed Forces that a much larger invasion force was about to cross the English Channel from Kent, England. In reality, the Normandy landings were the main attempt at establishing a beachhead, made easier by the German Command's reluctance to commit its armies.
A classic piece of CIA disinformation was a pornographic movie made in the 1960s with an actor pretending to be President Sukarno of Indonesia. It was meant to undermine Mr. Sukarno with Muslims.
In 1986, national security adviser John Poindexter wrote for President Reagan a "disinformation program" aimed at destabilizing Libya's Col. Muammar Qaddafi by false reports in the foreign press about an impending conflict between the two countries. But the false information reached an American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal - a phenomenon known in the trade as "blowback."
Many 9/11 researchers (notably Mark Robinowitz) have accused some other popular 9/11 conspiracy sites of fostering conspiracy theories as disinformation meant to discredit and distract the 9/11 Truth Movement."
be_afriad
So the first aspect I would like to address here, is who would want to become a Cognitive Disinformer. From the research I have done on the Internet, I have notes that you have those who are in competition with other people/organizations/groups and in attempts to 'annihilate' the competition the group in question will spread rumours and use Cognitive Disinformation to discredit the 'rivals on the internet.' Now the word Cognitive revers to not not merely using rumours and falsifying of information or defamation to discredit another - you actually research or study how the human thinks  - meaning the Cognitive aspects behind human thinking and behaviour and you follow such Cognitive Disinformation techniques which would give you your desires results. These techniques as indicated in the article above are usually used by organisations that profit through discredit other groups/individuals from a political and economic viewpoint.
The second type of Cognitive Disinformer is then the one who gets paid by the above mentioned groups to discredit.
The following article for example, takes a deeper look into "Disinformation: How It Works" - if you would like to check it out:
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/964-disinformation-how-it-works

Then specifically the point I am focussing on today is:
Pay for Comments – Confessions of a Paid Disinformation Internet Shill
http://wakeup-world.com/2012/10/03/pay-for-comments-confessions-of-a-paid-disinformation-internet-shill/


The Solution:

So lets look at the  key points that this ex-paid-internet-disinformer mentions as the underlying causes and consequences for him being employed to be a disinformer - because through this we are able to, if one is interested in creating a better world - start to develop insight into how to STOP having to create such jobs such as 'Cognitive Disinformers':
"I had been out of work for almost a year after losing my last job in tech support. Increasingly desperate and despondent..."

"Well, beggars can’t be choosers..."

  "the people making the referrals, like my ex-colleague Yvette, were trained to pick out candidates based on several factors including ability to keep one’s mouth shut, basic writing skills, and desperation for work..."
 
  "in the end I felt worse about the possibility of losing the first job I’d been able to get since losing my “real” job..."
 
  "After a while of doing this, I started to feel bad. Not because of the views I was pushing (as I said, I was first apolitical, then pro-Israel), but because of the dishonesty involved. If my arguments were so correct, I wondered, why did we have to do this in the first place? Shouldn’t truth propagate itself naturally, rather than through, well…propaganda? And who was behind this whole operation, anyway? Who was signing my pay checks? The stress of lying to my parents and friends about being a “consultant” was also getting to me..."
Not only does this man now have to face his own self value, who he has to become and the lies he had to spread - which become a changing of ones own personal values - but we are also looking here at forced internet bullying by one party onto those who are forced into such economic positions. I mean we are looking here at the Economic and Societal issues from a two-fold perspective. First the organisations, whom I will start addressing from the next blog, are due to greed and control for power  - allowing themselves to stoop to this level - of manipulating of those who are desperate to have to become a 'Cognitive Disinformer' - which results in the individual loathing themselves and losing more out of life than just a pay check. The second point we are looking at here - is obviously, in common sense the realization that our Economic System, our principles behind which capitalism functions, is responsible for creating situations where the public have to accept such 'jobs', where the point of greed  is being emphasized so extensively, that groups/organizations will do 'whatever it takes' to get their desires outcome.
 
  As we will start exploring in the next blog - when we start looking at different forms of Cognitive Disinformation - realize that the organizations/groups behind this are always doing it for power, control and greed. Therefore power, control and greed - from the perspective of 'the solution' would be something we as the public will have to address - to ask for ourselves why have we allowed within ourselves to let the desire for power, control and greed to get this obsessive - that we forget completely about Life, honouring ourselves and living a dignified life. We have become empty shells who only live for the energetic value that the money obtained through greed - can apparently give us.
 
  So the solution to stopping these outflows as what is being created in the system by groups/organizations to be in control and make money - has to be addressed by not just the people in control/ownership of the organizations - but by the public -as firstly we are the ones that are all agreeing that greed and the current way of living is acceptable and the only way forward. Secondly we are the ones that are the consumers (for which those who are interested in obtaining the highest profit, by getting us to buy into the products) -  the ones that are influenced through the manipulation of information - whether it be through presenting products in favourable ways by manipulating our Cognitive Process or through directing our attention away from the competition to purchase from the company who is using Cognitive Disinformation to discredit their 'rivals’. Either way - the responsibility has always been with the Human race - all of us who's decisions and actions are always creating the external world-system within which capitalism functions.


 
  The Reward:
 
  Here as mentioned above, the outcome of creating a world where we are not living to achieve happiness through how much money we have - will obviously consequentially change everything we do. If we change the Economic system to Support us as living, breathing expressive beings, by changing how we create and manage our economic system - then the outcome and reward is obviously going to be 'heaven on earth for all'. Why would we all want to keep an economic system that creates Fear and Paranoia in us and in the generations to come - why are we the forerunners of the corruptive practices of Cognitive Disinformation? What does that say about us as the Human who lives for and actually supports outcomes generated by others that create further lives and choices for us based only on Paranoia?
 
  More to come…


Personal experiences of Cognitive disinformation:

http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/03/when-anonymous-acted-like-hitler-on.html
http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/03/day-330-to-write-with-principle-and.html
http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/03/day-332-ku-klux-klan-on-quora.html
http://andrearossouw1.blogspot.com/2011/09/rick-ross-is-cult-and-here-are-reasons.html


For reading on an alternative to the current Capitalistic System:


Equal Money Capitalism
http://economistjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/12/day-162-equal-money-capitalism-way.html#.UadEl0A3Adk
 
and

The Equal Money System
http://equalmoney.org/

as well as:

The Equal Life Foundation - Bill of Rights:
http://marlenvargasdelrazo.wordpress.com/equal-life/

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Day 49: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 11 – The recession and Supply and Demand

This Blog is a Continuation from: 

 Day 39: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 1 – Denying Children a Practical Education 

 Day 40: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 2 – Creating Debt for an Education. 

 Day 41: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 3 – the Textbook Deception 

 Day 42: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 4 – the Recession  

 Day 43: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 5 – the Recession and the Consumer Part 1 

 Day 44: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 6 – the Recession and the Consumer Part 2 

 Day 45: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 7 – the Recession and the Consumer Part 3 

 Day 46: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 8 – the Recession and the Consumer Part 4 

 Day 47: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 9 – the Recession and the Consumer Part 5 

 Day 48: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 10 – the Recession and Markets 

Self-Forgiveness in this blog will focus on the following information: 



 DAY 49: RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION: SUPPLY & DEMAND 

http://economistjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-49-resource-distribution-supply.html



Purchasing power: I forgive myself for accepting and allowing the capitalistic system to separate people according to those who have money and those who do not.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to limit people’s abilities to provide for their basic needs according to their purchasing power.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to place the control and management of the planet’s resources in the hands of the minority, who manage the resources for their own greed.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing the management of resources to not be about the equal distribution to all who inhabit the planet, but only for those who have sufficient money to be able to have ‘purchasing power;

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to make such a big deal out of the concept of purchasing power – giving it some special value that makes those with purchasing power feel special and good about themselves within the system, when in fact purchasing power means death and discomfort to many, while lining the pockets of the Elite few through the spending of the working class slaves.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to deny the wants and needs of the many, to maintain a crooked system, which is about keeping an equilibrium where we always have to pay to live.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to play my role in the equilibrium of the capitalistic system, where my need for a product determines it’s price and this needs is dependent on my addiction to energy as the products that are bound by images, colors, and concepts within ones mind which you perceive you are experiencing through having this product = therefore we have shows that the entertainment of the human mind exploited by the Elitists to make more money – has more value than Life on this planet.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to provide resources only for those with money, and to leave and justify the abuse of countless beings each day within the Money System.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to experience an energetic rush, as I come across that product – so many users/consumers desire, which costs above what most can afford, which I am able to afford – thus heightening my status in society, in my friendship circles, and within myself as I have placed myself above the rest, monetarily and through my own ego-mind relationship with myself.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing supply and demand as I respect this economic law, as it allows me to brag and feel proud within myself at the ‘things’ I was able to acquire due to my purchasing power – not realizing I am handing the Elite/those who control money all the tools with which to further fuck humanity into debt slavery and money control – but for now I allow it because all-in-all – my backchat says - it is worth it, as I experience mental masturbation due to my ‘purchasing power’

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to play the opposite polarity of the one who cannot afford luxuries, staring through the shop window in envy at that ‘beautiful’ product, and experiencing pangs of regret as I see another with the product I cannot have – creating more and more emotional energy and fear within myself towards not being able to fulfill myself within buying everything I would needs to look good and feel good.

Law of Demand: I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to play the role within the law of demand of the needy, hungry, human who directs itself not from what is practically required –but driven from energy systems – making the human believe we serve some ‘god given design’ called individuality – but is actually just s reacting to he highs and lows of Mind energy – as we are not yet the directors of the Mind as we so clearly see in the fundamentals of how consumerism functions.

I commit myself to show that the economy exists to protect money and those with money and therefore has nothing to do with the advancement or protection of Life.

I commit myself to show that the current money system is one of pure evil – because its only function is to protect those with money while profiting from the gap between rich and poor and the emotional states that it places people into as they are forced into fear of survival – and how this influences the consumer to participate in consumption.

I commit myself to the development of a new economic system – which involved the proper research of what is required for all humans to live, how to manage and distribute the resources accordingly and the ongoing management of what is best for all Life on this planet.




More Self-Forgiveness and Self-Corrective Statements on Supply and Demand:


DAY 50: RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION - PART 2

http://economistjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-50-resource-distribution-part-2.html


DAY 51: RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION - PART 3

http://economistjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-51-resource-distribution-part-3.html


Day 143: Free Stuff! And True Activism

http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/09/day-143-free-stuff-and-true-activism.html





Source:


“College Conspiracy.” Top Documentary Films. [http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/college-conspiracy/].  Retrieved on 10 September 2012.



Friday, September 21, 2012

Day 48: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 10 – the Recession and Markets





Please see the previous Blogs on the Education Fraud, to understand the Context of ‘The Recession and Consumer’ Blogs: http://crimesjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/09/day-39-international-crime-research.html


Original Blog containing rite up on ‘The Recession’.


In this blog, Self-Forgiveness on:

“Understanding markets

In the United States rather than being a market economy we are actually a modified market economy. But in either case in both types of economies production and consumption are connected in various markets. And in both cases a market is simply a place where consumers can go to buy things from producers and producers can go to sell things to consumers. In fact in most economies there are two basic kinds of markets, a physical market and an abstract market. But the most interesting thing to note is that in most cases everybody is going to be a producer and a consumer, but to be each of these they are going to be acting in different markets.

A physical market is where producers and consumers can go to buy and sell their goods. A great example of a physical market is a grocery store. The reason for this is that with a grocery store people can go to the store if they are looking to consume food. At the store they can purchase the food from the producers, but in most cases they are purchasing it through a series of middlemen. Two great examples of the abstract market are the labor market and the stock market. With the labor market businesses who want to consume work pay people to produce labor. And with the stock market people and businesses or consumers and producers buy and sell percentages of ownership for various companies.”

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to term the abuse of resources on this planet as viable as it allows us to create markets for consumers and allow capitalists to profit.


I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to consumer the consumer through developing fake markets for products where I basically create an idea within the mind of the consumer through brainwashing, that they need these items to fulfill themselves and to experience happiness in life

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing the idea behind markets to come from the illusion that humanity requires certain goods and that for capitalists to profit, we have to understand how to manipulate the human into believing we require vast amounts og goods, produced at minimal costs, at the expense of resources and the labor markets.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to abuse the resource markets, whereby I claim that the resources of this planet are there for me to utilize in my human drive for profit and excellence

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing the development of the idea of human ‘excellence’ and competition, whereby to create markets and to sell that to the human is seen as a positive step in the direction of human evolution and development, instead of realize and seeing the game that is being played behind the abusing of resources for profit through manipulating the human psyche as it currently exists.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to put many small businesses out of business as I participate in ‘market control’ forcing some out of business as they cannot keep up with changing trends and market changes.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to manifest the consumer into a user/abuser of energy as I create a hype around the latest product/gimmick through tapping into the fragile human Mind/Psyche, and through this addiction the consumer has to energy, pictures and the concept of popularity as self value – I have created this fluctuation in user habits where the consumer tires of one product and needs the next best thing – which allows for the capitalist/producer/business person to create markets.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself as economist to create concepts to justify the abuse of life on this planet, by using terminology such as ‘market force’ – whereby symbolically through the study of the human mind patterns, I tap into words that humans fear, like and dislike – whereby people resonantly create a respect for this apparent ‘force’ which is like a force of god that is free standing and not really in the control of the economists/capitalists – but merely something that happens as a result of consumer and goods interaction – not self honestly sharing the real actuality of how this force is in fact created and perpetuated.

I commit myself to show that forces do not just happen for no reason and due to anomalous consequences – and that forces are the direct result of either the human manipulating itself through and within energy or through groups of people (economists and capitalists) setting in motion certain events that will trigger further actions between the human and the product market.

I commit myself to show that if we take self responsibility for this planet, as ourselves we will realize that manipulation of others and ourselves is redundant and requires specific self stopping within the realization that one cannot deliberately do harm and then claim you do not know you cause harm

I commit myself within the above statement to adjust my understanding of Life on this planet from the competitive, harmful way of living of that of an organic robot, born and bred to consume and use – to that of a being that considers life on this planet as I consider myself as life – equal and one – where I create a future for myself and all generations that will be worth living and that will remain consistent as a living statement of ourselves.



Cool Quote for the Day:


"I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to separate morality from politics and economics and law based on the idea that somehow the market forces  have a life of its own that do not follow moral values  although the only participant in relationship to market forces are the human and the greed of the human that use control to protect profit and will allow many to perish in the name of the human laws of politics, economics and religion."
http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2012/04/day-10-relationship-dynamics.html


Further Reading on Markets:


DAY 81: THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE ECONOMY


DAY 87: COMPETITION AND EFFICIENCY


Day 10: Relationship Dynamics


Day 18: Dementia – The Rotten Child Syndrome


Day 96: Advertising Success Secrets or Economic Doom?


Day 122: TRUE ACTIVIST COLLEGE EDUCATION



Sources:

Mohammed, Mohsin. “Recession in Simple Terms.” [http://mmohsin.blogspot.com/].  Retrieved on: 10 September 2012.

“College Conspiracy.” Top Documentary Films. [http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/college-conspiracy/].  Retrieved on 10 September 2012.


Monday, September 10, 2012

Day 42: International Crime Research: Education Fraud Part 4 – the Recession






I suggest watch the following Documentary:


From the transcription of the Documentary I will draw information for the application of self-forgiveness on the current Education System of the World:

“College tuition has seen a five point one five percent annual price inflation over the past five years. This is despite the fact that the US real estate prices are down twenty six percent from their peak in july of 2006 and the dow jones is down 18% from its peak in october of 2007. Even oil is down 38% from its peak in july of two thousand eight. During the financial crisis of two thousand eight Americans lost ten point two trillion dollars in paper wealth. College is the only thing in America besides the cost of health care they did not temporarily decline in price.     
Gerald Celente from Trends Research Institute: “Inflation has made it impossible. When I was a kid you never heard parents say “we're planning and putting money away for your education because it's going to cost us a hundred thousand dollars and we have to keep putting that money away, so that when you graduate not only will you not pay us back – your not even going to get a job.”   Over just a two year period from December of 2007 through December 2009 eight million three hundred sixty three thousand jobs in America were lost, or one percent of total jobs. One year later in December of 2010 thanks to the federal reserve in the US government, spending four point six trillion dollars on bailouts stimulus programs and other government spending, one point one two four million jobs in America or point nine percent of total jobs has been recovered. That is over four million dollar spent for each job created.
 As we move deeper into this great recession, as inflation continues to skyrocket, the reality of the great depression will come in because people will realize that all that worthless money you have cannot buy you much of anything. You are going to see more and more people believing that by going to college that's going to be their passport to the future. Its not what it use to be - a college degree – what will that buy you?”
 
Before continuing with the Self-Forgiveness on the Education Scam, let first look at ‘the Recession’:
 

"RECESSION IN SIMPLE TERMS"



 "A recession is a prolonged period of time where a nation's economy is slowing down or as the economists usually put it contracting. This slow down is actually characterized by a number of different trends, some of those trends are: People buying less stuffDecrease in factory productionGrowing unemploymentSlump in personal incomeAn unhealthy stock market But just because the economy is slowing down or contracting that doesn't automatically mean that there is a recession going on. In fact according to the actual definition of a recession the slowdown in the economy actually has to last for at least six months or two consecutive quarters. But even though we have a definition of what a recession is and we understand what it means to be in a recession, this definition actually causes more questions than it actually answers. The reason for this is that even though we talk about the US economy or any economy as an independent entity, it is actually the result of millions of people's actions. And economists use all sorts of terms to describe the connection between people's actions and the economy as a whole. But even though they use all sorts of terms you can get the basic understanding of how people's actions are connected to the economy as a whole by looking at a few basic concepts. Those concepts are: producers, consumers, markets, supply and demand. 

Understanding producers and consumers


To put it in simple terms a nation's economy is the production and consumption of goods (food, clothes, cars, etc) and services (repairs, haircuts, lawn care, etc) in that particular nation. And basically anybody who is producing or consuming the goods or services in that nation plays some kind of role in that nation's economy. What this boils down to is that a nation is dependent on both businesses and consumers; businesses produce the goods and services, while consumers actually purchase the goods or use the services. In fact this all boils down to the fact that production and consumption are intertwined, basically one cannot exist without the other. The reason for this is that in order for people to be able to consume things you actually need to have someone or something producing the things that the people are consuming. And in order to produce things you are going to need to consume things. A great example of needing to consume things in order to produce things is the fact that if you are producing clocks you are going to need to consume people's labor to make those clocks and you are going to be consuming natural resources when you are running the plant to produce those clocks.  

Understanding markets 


In the United States rather than being a market economy we are actually a modified market economy. But in either case in both types of economies production and consumption are connected in various markets. And in both cases a market is simply a place where consumers can go to buy things from producers and producers can go to sell things to consumers. In fact in most economies there are two basic kinds of markets, a physical market and an abstract market. But the most interesting thing to note is that in most cases everybody is going to be a producer and a consumer, but to be each of these they are going to be acting in different markets. A physical market is where producers and consumers can go to buy and sell their goods. A great example of a physical market is a grocery store. The reason for this is that with a grocery store people can go to the store if they are looking to consume food. At the store they can purchase the food from the producers, but in most cases they are purchasing it through a series of middlemen. Two great examples of the abstract market are the labor market and the stock market. With the labor market businesses who want to consume work pay people to produce labor. And with the stock market people and businesses or consumers and producers buy and sell percentages of ownership for various companies.
Understanding supply and demandBasically the goal of every producer is to make money and in order to make money the producer is going to need to sell their product at a higher price than what it cost them to make the product. And with consumers their main goal is to buy the products for the cheapest price possible. This is where supply and demand comes into play in the economy. In any kind of market the action of both the producers and consumers determine the value of goods and services, basically the actions determine the price that is paid for goods and services. The producers are the ones who actually set the price of the products, but they set the price based on how their consumers are behaving. What this boils down to is if a product is not selling than the producer knows that the price is too high so they are going to need to lower it. But if a product is selling, but not selling quickly the producers know they have two options, lower the price again or decrease the supply of the product. How the consumers affect the price of the product is through demand, either they want the product or they don't. Producers need to pay close attention to the demand when pricing products, but even if there is a high demand for a certain product the producers still need to keep the price as low as possible because all the consumers need to do is buy it from somebody else. 

How these factors work in a growing economy and a contracting economy


The first thing that you need to know about a growing economy is that in this type of economy consumer demand is actually increasing more than it is decreasing. And since there is an increasing demand producers are going to want to increase supply. But in order to increase supply producers are going to need to increase their consumption of other goods and services, including labor.  What this boils down to is that when labor increases people can get paid more for their work, which in turn means they have more money to spend on various products and services. And because people have more money to spend this means that demand is going to increase even more. And if the demand increases enough producers can actually increase their prices, in a hope of decreasing the demand a little bit. Overall in a growing economy both consumers and producers feel good about the growing economy and tend to make numerous investments because they know that if things keep going the way they have been their investment is going to increase in value. But history of the economy has actually proven that no economy can expand forever, there just comes a time when the economy has to contract. And a prolonged period of contraction is known as a recession and as most of us know if the recession lasts for a prolonged period of time, several years, it is then referred to as a depression. In fact there are all kinds of things that can change the course of the economy, which can lead to a recession. One huge factor that plays a role in a recession is the confidence level of the millions of consumers and producers. Basically if they stop feeling confident about the economy, including job security or the value of their investments, they are not going to buy as much stuff. But another thing that can help to start a recession is over-production, which means there is more supply of a product then there is demand for a product. But no matter what the cause of the recession basically what happens is that people lose their jobs because the demand for products and services are not there. And when people lose their jobs they tend to spend as little money as possible because they need that money to live on. But also people who are working are affected because they are afraid that they might not be working much longer so rather than spend money on products and services they are going to save that money just in case they lose their job. In a contracting economy what happens is rather than spiraling upwards everything is spiraling downwards. 


More: Reasons for Global Recession: In plain simple English



Next Blog: ‘Self Forgiveness on ‘The Recession’




Also see:


Day 73: Living the Dream is the Purpose of Life

Day 96: Advertising Success Secrets or Economic Doom?


Day 75: Jesus had a Neat Trick with the Rich

DAY 84: FISCAL POLICY AND THE BUDGET




Sources:

Mohammed, Mohsin. “Recession in Simple Terms.” [http://mmohsin.blogspot.com/].  Retrieved on: 10 September 2012.

“College Conspiracy.” Top Documentary Films. [http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/college-conspiracy/].  Retrieved on 10 September 2012.

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