Lost Secrets of Making Money In Today’s World Part Three

I came across this article about building wealth, I think that part three is the best, but the first two parts are good for basic principles of building wealth.

-DC

 

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Lost Secrets of Making Money in Today’s World Part Three

 

Earlier, in Part One and Two, we talked about the principles and concepts of creating money and that leads to vast wealth. As a refresher, here are the topics again:

1. Knowing Value
2. Practicing Conservatism
3. Paying Yourself First and we touched upon,
4. LEVERAGE and REINVESTMENT

LEVERAGE

Now, I am going to talk about Number 4, so let us proceed.

Like a lever that can move large masses very easily and accomplish more in less time, so you too can create wealth faster with leverage than with savings and the practicing of conservatism. Conservatism is not wasting what you have.

Working for an hourly wage is not going to make you wealthy and practicing conservatism would just keep you going on and make ends meet and perhaps live very well. However, you will not amass great wealth.

For that, you need to create leverage. Leverage is the art or technique you can use to create or formulate a system whereby you will generate MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME by earning a portion of the revenues generated from projects.

A good example might be as follows:

You wrote a book, and negotiated with your publisher who thinks you have a No. 1 best seller on our hands. He accepts all the risks, finances the publishing of the book, and markets it on the premise that you collect 10% from gross sales.  Whether it is a winner or not, you get your 10% of the gross sales according to contract and all you did was wrote the book. This is a form of leverage. The money you earn from this could well be several times more than you will earn in a whole year.  This is the power of leverage.

Another example: You created a machine or product — physical or chemical- like a shampoo spray, bathroom cleaner etc., and you arranged with a manufacturer to make it in large quantities and then distribute it to thousands of distributors throughout the country or the world.  Your take in this, like before is, say 1 to 5 percent of the revenues.  By now you can see how easy you can become a multi millionaire from these types of leverage techniques. You will never have to work another day in your life if you set up a system like this for yourself.  You can learn a new craft, trade, use your inherent talent to create products and services for sale and you will surely come up with a winner if you keep at it.

In a minute, I will show you how you can set one up for yourself with a little effort on your part.  You do not have to create a vehicle to financial success; one is already created for you.  All you will have to do is make it work. Well show you how, every step of the way.

This is the real secret to creating great wealth money to burn etc., or whatever you want to call it. The secret is to put little effort to gain the most output. You will learn how to invest in several projects and you will see how 20% of your investment will generate 80% profits for you.  You work smart, not hard. Work less. Make more.

REINVESTMENT PROGRAM

Now, suppose that you have created a product or service using this leverage system. And, your money in the bank is generating interest upon interest compounded daily, quarterly and yearly. Soon, you will have a tax problem.  You are earning too much money and Uncle Sam will want his share. You will now have to scratch your head to lower your taxes. Your income will soar to the moon and you will have to seek tax shelter and occupy yourself with protecting your income.

To combat this problem, you will have to find new investment vehicles that will protect your income for many years to come. You will be looking at long term investment funds, Trust funds, Equity Protection funds, reverse mortgages, treasury bonds, gold, silver, and other precious metals, re-investment in large a shopping centers, antiques, art collection and more, just that you protect your current and future income.

But, however you cut it, you will still have to pay Uncle Sam some of it by employing legal Tax Avoidance strategies, despite the creative tax accounting that you may employ.

But, all in all, it is better to have all this money available to live an abundant life and pay Uncle Sam his share, than have to pinch pennies to live and end up in poverty. One millionaire I know said that he could never use all the money he has accumulated, but it is nice to know that it is there if you need it.

So brace yourself, and get ready to put this LEVERAGE vehicle that is already set for you to achieve all the financial outcomes we described above. You will enjoy the thrill and the ride.

The Faster you start the quicker you will be looking to start a reinvestment program as described here.  But, by then, who cares, when you have vaults of money that keeps piling up.

 

Telepresence Magic

I remember watching “Total Recall” when I was a young boy, and I remember the hologram, when Arnold Schwarzenegger projected a 3D image of himself to a different place using this device. While I was in class we watched a video where this guy does just that, I was amazed. First of all, I did not know what the video was about, so when this guy walks onto the stage when he is 14,000 miles away from it I was shocked. I almost had to leave my seat because I did not think it was real. Then about halfway through the video I started thinking about how much money a technology like this could save business people who have to travel for meetings and to give seminars. I have been reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki called “Rich Dad’s Prophecy” and there is a part when Robert is writing about the future, he was saying that in the information age that changes will be invisible. People had to travel by boat first and then by plane in the present, in the future they will use a technology such as this and they will not have to leave their home base. This will save time and money for everyone and not require people to have to take days off recuperating after a business trip. I was so excited about this that I showed it to my girlfriend and then we started talking more about it. Imagine what movies or computer games could be like. Business could have meetings just like in the movie “Resident Evil”, where the whole board is not actually there. Politicians could give speeches to every place at once and be as effective as if they were there in person, this would also reduce the risk of assassination. The world’s best teachers could teach classes to and from anywhere in the world. People of different cultures could meet almost in person and learn about each other, further flattening the world. The future is already here; we just don’t know it yet.

 

Distributed Computing

            Distributed computing is a method of using many computers processor resources together over a network to bring about power that is similar to, or greater than, the power of a conventional super computer. In class we learned about the SETI@home project, which uses peoples computers to search for extraterrestrial life. This was the first time that I had heard of the concept of using people’s home computers in this manner, although I have read about Google’s “cloud computing” data center which uses a concept similar to distributed computing.

            Being business minded, I suddenly had a spark go off in my mind, I thought if organizations need my processor then they have to pay me for it, I thought that this would be a great way to earn a little passive income, enough to pay for my coffee habit. I thought that there would be a ton of places capitalizing on this so I Googled it. Sure enough there were many results so I started going through my results and quickly realized that none of them were paying for this service. I also noticed that most of the information that I found was pretty old, from 2001, and that the new stuff was all by volunteer only. I emailed a few places and they all told me that they would pay me if I had 25 or more computers. Since I am a business minded individual, I was not easily discouraged, I searched various combinations of ‘distributed computed’ and ‘earn money’ together. I found a website that seemed promising called ‘ubero.com’ but could not register due to problems with their website. I eventually decided to donate my processing power to a good cause…

            I ended up choosing a site called ‘Gstock.com’ they use my processing power to analyze the stock market and decide when the best time is to buy and sell selected stocks. I receive an email every time the status of a stock in my portfolio changes from buy to sell. In the end I hope to make a little bit of money with this system although it is not really passive income, the earning potential is endless. The fact that none of the other sites were paying now seems like a blessing in disguise.

How children are socialized through games

            When I was a kid I used to play a game with no name. This game was kind of like “hide and seek” mixed with “good guys versus bad guys”. My brother, our friends, and I used to split up into two groups and go to the desert. Then one group would be the “bad guys” and go and hide while the other group would wait for about 5 minutes and then go to find the first group. We would always don our favorite weapons which consisted of one or more of the following; a stick, some small rocks or little desert fruits, and of course the rope. If the “good guys” found the “bad guys” then they would capture them and put them in the area designated the prison. If a “bad guy” found the prison then they could free the rest of the captured “bad guys”. Some times it was okay to switch teams but traitors were never really trusted. Thinking about this game now, since I have studied sociology, has really highlighted the sociological implications of what this game actually taught me.

            Children learn their “proper” role, what society expects, while playing games like this. This game taught me about the importance of teamwork and how to use it. Being the oldest brother, I also got to learn a lot about leadership. Since I grew up in the harsh Arizona desert, playing outside in the middle of the day, automatically taught me various survival skills. I knew which plants you could eat and what you could not eat I knew the importance of water and had a canteen which really kept me alive. Most importantly, I learned the difference between men and women because there was never a girl playing this game, only boys were allowed, therefore there was a distinction from men and women. When I was growing up if all the guys were playing and one guy would have stayed to play with the girls, everyone else would wonder, “What is wrong with that guy”. This game really taught me what society expects a man to do all around. This game has brought out a lot of the qualities in me that I never would have had otherwise because I would have not developed them. Next time you see little children playing children’s games like the one I told you about, don’t think about how childish it is, think about the skills those kids are gaining as a result of the game. 

Sony Case study

 Sony Case study Business 311  Aaron Cui – customerDoug Cullison – manager    Customer - i think that what you as the sony company was wrong and unethical. It is wrong to secretly install something on a customer’s computer without them knowing. That is an invasion of privacy. This invasion of privacy can lead to viruses being uploaded onto my computer without me knowing how it got there. What is the purpose of exposing your customers to this risk? Manager – We are trying to prevent illegal copying of CD tracks and boot-legging, the software prevents this from happening. As a publishing company it is our responsibility to protect our client’s intellectual property. We were unaware of the affects that the software would have on your computer system, and didn’t expect it to make your computer available to viruses. Customer – That is understandable, but there must be a better way to do this without secretly installing hidden programs. Conclusion - As the customer, I do not want uninvited software to be installed on my computer without my consent. However Sony does have the right to protect their material from being illegally copied. A different approach would be better for the customer because they would not be receiving unwanted and potentially dangerous programs onto their computer. As a leasion between the artists and the general public we (Sony) will find a solution to this problem. We will look at what other companies are doing to protect copyrights. We will provide software to remove the malasious software from our customers computers and will provide support to repair any damages that were caused by this software. We will find a way to protect songs without installing any additional software. 

Up in Rankings

The University of Hawaii’s College of Business Administration’s (UHCBA) undergraduate program has move up in rankings. This year the U.S. News and World Report ranked the program 13th in the nation, compared to 17th place last year. UHCBA tied with Indiana University-Bloomington. The UHCBA graduate program also went up by one place in the rankings for International Business to 21st place, tying UHCBA with Dartmouth College and George Washington University. The article acts like a free advertisement for the UHCBA as it encourages more students to consider the college based on its rankings.Since the UHCBA is higher in rankings, it will attract more students to want to go to school there. Going up in rankings can be measured as a non-price determinant, because it is an increase in measured quality. According to the Law of Demand, a change in any non-price determinant will cause a shift in demand. In this case there will be an increase in demand. With an increase in demand there will be more students applying to UHCBA. This will cause a shortage of classes available, and will require the price to increase until the point of equilibrium.The problem with this is that the UHCBA, and most other school systems in the U.S., are not in a free market system. Schools cannot adjust the tuition price based upon supply and demand; it is dictated by the state. Therefore, the way to compensate for this increase in demand is to make it harder to get into the school by raising the admission standards. Raising the standard will actually cause a decrease in demand, back to its original equilibrium point. Thus, eliminating the shortage of available classes. There is actually another way to eliminate the shortage of classes; the UHCBA could simply obtain more resources, for example more classrooms and professors.up-in-rankings.doc

Oahu to get 6 new Taco Del Mar Eateries by Spring

A new chain of restaurants that serves tacos is opening up here in Hawaii, the firm called Taco Del Mar is opening a total of nineteen restaurants. This year two other firms have also came into the market here in Hawaii they are Wahoo’s and Moe’s. All of these firms are in the so-called “Fresh-Mexican” (Mexi-Fresh) market, which is a sophisticated new market for Mexican food that excludes Taco Bell. Each firm offers similar products but tries to differentiate its self, for instance Maui Tacos uses Hawaiian ingredients and Hawaiian sounding names. Taco Del Mar differentiates itself by serving in a style similar to Subway whereas the other firm’s cook their food in a kitchen. This will have many implications on the Mexi-fresh Industry.All of these factors will affect the Mexi-Freh market in Hawaii in two ways because of one reason, the number of firms in the market with a close substitute product. One factor that will be affected will be the elasticity of demand of the entire market, making the entire market more sensitive to change in price. Before the new restaurants came into the “Mexi-Fresh” market, Maui Tacos was the only firm in the market making it a monopoly, which has a relatively inelastic demand curve. According to the Law of Elasticity of Demand the more elastic a product is the more sensitive it is to a change in price, which means that if you change the price a little then there will be a greater affect on demand, and the demand curve will become more horizontal or elastic. According to the news article all three of the new firms coming into the market provide close substitutes to Maui Tacos product, which will in turn greatly increase the elasticity of demand. There is also another factor that will affect price and it is supply. As the number of firms in the industry increases the supply for “Mexi-Fresh” products will also increase. This will cause the market price to decrease and the quantity demanded to increase. Since the elasticity of demand has increased so much, it will be difficult for individual firms to raise the price of their product because it will cause the quantity demanded to decrease greatly.Since Taco Del Mar’s main goal is to maximize profit, they will try to decrease the elasticity for their individual demand curve. Once they open up they will try to distinguish their self from the other firm’s in the industry, Taco Del Mar will do this by advertising. They will also distinguish them selves by marketing the style that they serve. Since Taco Del Mar prepares their products right behind the counter, in fort of the customer, they will have a relatively inelastic demand curve allowing Taco Del Mar to become a price setter to a certain extent. Other firm’s will have to advertise in order to convince potential customers that their product is different or superior to Taco Del Mar and the firm that has been in Hawaii all along, Maui Tacos.tacos-elasticity.doc

Smoking Ban is Law of the Land

Hawaii recently passed a new law concerning smoking, the law makes it illegal to smoke in many public places including all, restaurants, bars, airports, and partially enclosed facilities that are open to the public. This new has made many smokers upset claiming that it takes away their right’s but nonsmokers are happy to have a law protect their right to breathe clean air. Inorder to look at this issue in a rational way one must look at the economics of smoking and of the new law.Hawaii has the 11th highest tax rate per pack of cigarettes at 1.40 per pack (Taxfoundation.org). These regulations are designed to protect nonsmokers from the negative side effects of second hand smoke, but the tax doesn’t make that many people quit smoking. According to the book Curbing the Epidemic by the World Bank “researchers have found that a price rise of 10 percent for a pack of cigarettes decreases demand by about 4 percent (an elasticity of -0.4)” this proves that the elasticity of demand for smoking cigarettes is relatively inelastic. So the Government must step in and enforce regulations against smoking.The new law will make it much more inconvenient for smokers to smoke in public places, the increase in inconvenience is measured as an increase in price, so it will decrease the quantity demanded for cigarettes. Figure-1 illustrates the shift in supply and reduction in quantity demanded, which shows the increased inconvenience. The new law was created inorder to reduce the amount of places that people can smoke thus reducing the supply of places to smoke. The demand for cigarettes is relatively inelastic because nicotine is an addictive substance and there are no close substitutes. According to the World Bank Smoking regulations reduce “tobacco consumption by between 4 and 10 percent, according to various estimates” this is a much greater affect than changing the price of cigarettes. According to Figure-2 the marginal cost to society will be reduced by this new law, it will shift from E-1 to E-2, which will be an increase in cleanliness. This new law will affect the polluters (smokers) by reducing pollution causing activities.Since nicotine is such an addictive substance it will be hard for smokers to quit, therefore the government will have to step in again and offer more nicotine replacement therapy programs such as “Smoking Cessation”. This will make it much easier for them to quit smoking because it will provide needed support for smokers. Another long-term implication that this law will have is that it will prevent more people from starting smoking in the first place because fewer children will be exposed to cigarettes and less non-smokers at bars will be around smoking, which is a time when some people would be more likely to take a chance and try something they wouldn’t normally do since they would be inebriated. Although many smokers complain about the new law, it will greatly benefit society in the future by protecting our children.Sources:”The Tax Foundation – Tax Data for Hawaii.” Tax Data Hawaii. 11 OCT 2006.Tax Foundation. Accessed 6 Dec 2006 .United States of America. The World Bank.Curbing the Epidemic:Governmnets and the Economics of Tobacco Control.Washington, DC: GPO, 1999.tobacco-paper.doc

The Race Myth

This is an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of categorizing people by their race or religion. I will first go over the advantages of categorization and why it is needed. Then I will cover the disadvantages and give some examples throughout history that prove my point. Lastly, I am going to talk about how different we actually are from one another. I am trying to be objective while looking at this issue, and think that everyone should try to remain unemotional while looking at issues such as this.Ratiocinating without emotion I came up with the conclusion that there are some limited advantages to categorizing people by race and religion. The reason that there are advantages is that there is an inherent need for people to categorize each other into small groups in order to measure social norms and various other social factors that effect different groups within that society. Most social studies divide races up into groups based mostly on their ethnicity, or their genetic background. In most studies there are different results for each “category” that is based on race, with this said, this will be mentioned later on because with a deeper look it may only be because of social factors that are caused by years of oppression and racism and that makes it a disadvantage. Outside of science (sociology, anthropology, and medical science) there is no logical reason to categorize people by race or ethnicity that will not cause racism. There is also a logical reason to categorize people by religion because a religion is a main influence in a person’s values, norms, and beliefs. Most people of a single religion have similar norms and values therefore the people in that religion could be grouped together in order to make various social measurements. Again, there is no reason outside of science to categorize people by religion. The only real advantage there is to categorizing people by race or religion is in order to conduct scientific research, and sometimes that will cause racism (as in eugenics).In the 1930’s Nazi Germany was a proponent of eugenics and it led to the murder of 12 million Jews and also led to the sterilization of 400,000 people who were viewed as physically and mentally “unfit”. All of this starts from “categorizing” which promotes or causes people to use racial slurs, which then dehumanizes the group of people. For instance, if I am viewed as a “haole” or “cracker” in the eyes of another person they aren’t thinking of me as a human being, I become something more like an object or a “person without breath” (Haole by Hugh D. Mailly). Therefore something as simple as linguistics that most people shrug off really does have much significant meaning, I’m sure that when most people say “haole” they don’t really think that I don’t breathe, but they are looking at me as “different than they are”, which really means inferior. That is the seed of racism; the very fact that humans “identify” with one ethnicity more than another is what causes them to think of it as “us” and “them”, thus making everyone else less important. In Rwanda the Belgian colonizers created the distinction between the “Hutu” and “Tutsi”, the division is based more on social class than ethnicity, since there are no significant cultural or physical differences between the two. In 1994 the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s performed genocide on each other in a struggle for the power to control the state of Rwanda, simply because there was so much racial tension between two groups of people. There have been studies to prove that no two races are certainly genetically different.According to episode one of the documentary “Race-The Power of an Illusion” (By California Newsreel) no two people are that different after all. In the documentary the narrator says this about race “The idea of race assumes that simple external differences, rooted in biology, are linked to other, more complex internal differences, like athletic ability, musical aptitude, and intelligence. This belief is based on the idea that race is biologically real.” In the documentary a Microbiologist by the name of Pilar Ossorio says that no one has found any genetic markers that are in everybody of a particular race, and later she goes on to say that no one has discovered genetic markers that define race. According to the documentary genetically, we are among the most similar of all species. Only one out of every thousand nucleotides that make up our genetic code is different, one individual from another. Two look-alike penguins have twice the amount of genetic difference, from one from the other, than humans. Fruit flies have ten times more difference; any two fruit flies may be as different genetically from each other, as a human is from a chimpanzee. All of this substantive evidence supports the view of not categorizing people by race.Weighing the advantages of categorization against the disadvantages of it the only logical conclusion is against categorization. The benefits that recognizing race brings are so minuscule compared to the costs of racism. We are all made up of the same genetic material and we are all human beings. We need to be careful of the language that we use, even if there is not intent to cause harm to another person, because it is truly easy to dehumanize a person. Talking about peoples by categorizing them into groups is already making them seem less human than human. America has come a long way since the abolition slavery but it is up to us [Americans] to change the world once again and shift to a paradigm where we don’t think of people based upon their race, but we simply just think of “people”.Sources“Haole.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2006. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.19 Oct. 2006 http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/haole.html>.RACE – The Power of an Illusion. Dir. Larry Adelman. DVD.California Newsreel, 2003.

Left, Right, Center

Here is a chart that shows the ideologies from left to right, incase you don’t know what politicians mean by left and right. 

Most Liberal				Most Conservative
Communist	Socialist	Democrat	Republican	Fascist

 

 

Poverty Study

The first source is a research project that was done in Boston. The researcher is taking aLook at poverty and crime in a new way. Most of his research in based on surveys, which he conducted on prison inmates where he finds that there are over 2,000 white inmates and only 147 black inmates. He says that crimes such as arson, vandalism, and destruction of property, cannot be associated with poverty because there is no relation between poverty and that type of crime. Morse says, “There is no reason to believe that a poverty stricken individual is more likely to vandalize property”. Morse also says that crimes such as theft and robbery should be linked to poverty because they are related to income. Morse attributes most violent crimes to moral lapses and not to poverty.In the second source Luis says that it is not poverty that causes crime but it is the “personal choice” of the criminal. Luis says, “Some people will commit a wrong no matter what” he also talks about “white-collar crime that goes uninvestigated, un-prosecuted and under-punished” this statement insinuates that people that are more “well off” don’t get prosecuted as much as people in poverty. His main thesis is that it doesn’t matter what your social class is but the most important factor is your moral standing on crime.According all of my research poverty does not cause crime. It is the personal choice of the criminal. Persons who have more money can afford better lawyers and can usually get away with more criminal acts. Police officers “target” poor people and expect them to commit more crimes. These facts are the possible reasons for the criminal data to show that people in poverty have a higher crime rate. The data that most studies are based on doesn’t account for the fact that people who are not in poverty don’t get prosecuted as much. The studies also don’t attempt to measure the external factors of poverty such as stress. The number one factor that cuases stress in most people’s lives is money, if a person is in poverty they don’t have any money, therefore they will have a lot more stress in their everyday lives. Another factor that I didn’t see in my studies is under-employment; the fact is that under-employment can be a great factor in causing poverty.I tend to agree with the sources that I studied, because I used to live in poverty. My mother was a single parent; she worked 3 jobs and only made enough to provide food for my family. We didn’t get Christmas presents or any other material things that we didn’t need. I remember those years of my life and none of my siblings or I never committed any crimes, nor did my mother. The reason that we didn’t resort to crime is that it was against our morals; we didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do. Therefore, I believe that it is a person’s set of morals that determines their likely hood to commit a crime and not their social class.SourcesMorse, Ryan. “Primary Research.” The Relationship Between Crime and Poverty in Black Antebellum Boston. 11 May 2006. African-Americans in Antebellum Boston. 10 Oct 2006 <http://www.primaryresearch.org/bh/research/morse/index.php>.Luis. “Blogd.” [Weblog Poverty and Crime] 02 Dec 2005. 12 Oct 2006 <http://www.blogd.com/archives/001571.html>.

Severe Social Isolation

Severe Social Isolation Effects of Development

            Based on the evidence provided by the video “Secret of the Wild Child” there is a strong relationship between severe social isolation (SSI) and under-development of social traits in a child. Based on the video a child who grows up in isolation will not develop the ability to socialize. In extreme cases the child will never develop the ability to communicate through speech. Scientists believe that a child’s brain stops developing by the age of 10-12 years of age. Prohibited social activity will inhibit the development of a child’s brain consequently if a child is isolated their brain may not develop fully. Most of the apparent signs of severe isolation are very similar to the signs of Down syndrome and can be easily misdiagnosed. The most predominant sign of SSI is a lack of ability to communicate using language and a lack of emotion. Most SSI children cannot tell the difference between hot and cold, they can’t walk smoothly, and they have little retention and memory loss. All of these symptoms are signs of underdevelopment of the brain and according to research on brain development the brain stops (or slows extremely) developing in adolescent age. If a child passes through adolescence in SSI then they will never fully develop therefore the effects of SSI are permanent.

 

Links for research

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=genie

http://www.ecsd.com/~rhhedgz1/brain.html

http://www3.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/hsbioethics/units/unit3_4.html

 

 

The U.S. Within the World Economy

The U.S. Within the World Economy

What, How, and for Whom to Produce?  What to Produce?

•We live in a world of scarcity and tradeoffs. 

•If more of a particular item is produced, then less of something else will be produced during the same period, with a given set of resources.

•In the U.S. economy, for the most part, it is the interaction of the demand for and the supply of different goods and services that determines what and how much will be produced.

•This interaction is carried out via the price system.

The Price System      

•With a price system, when goods get scarcer, their prices go up. 

•When they get less scarce, their prices go down.

•If the highest price that consumers are willing to pay is less than the lowest cost at which a good or service can be produced, output will be zero.

How Should We Produce Our Goods and Services?

•The price system indicates to producers what to produce.

•Because of competition and the desire to make the highest profits possible, producers must use the least-cost combination of inputs.

For Whom Will Output Be Produced—Who Gets What?

•After goods and services are produced, there has to be a determination of who gets what.  For instance, who gets to buy all of those millions of new cars produced by General Motors and Ford? 

•The answers to questions like this are determined by the distribution of money income.

Determination of Money Income

•The money income is determined mainly by the value of your labor services to the outside world.

•It is given by how well you are able to sell your labor

•It also depends on how well you have invested in the stock market, housing, and the like.

Distribution of Goods

•In the U.S. economic system, the distribution of finished products to consumers is based on different consumers’ ability and willingness to pay the market prices for goods and services. 

•There is no central governing body that decides which consumers will get which goods.

Resources

•The U.S. economy produces millions upon millions of goods and services.

•Those goods and services that we produce each year require resources.

•We call such resources factors of production, which are the resources or inputs required for final production of goods and services.

Resource Classification

1.Land—As an economic term, land refers to all natural resources present without human intervention.

2.Labor—Labor is often called the human resource.  It includes the services of anyone who works to produce goods and services.

3.Capital—refers to the manufactured goods used to make other goods and services.

Sometimes economists like to distinguish between physical capital (factories and equipment) and human capital—defined as the accumulated education and training of workers. 4.Entrepreneurship—refers to the ability of individuals to start new businesses, to introduce new products and processes, and to improve management techniques. 

• Entrepreneurship involves initiative and willingness to take risks in order to reap profits.

Productivity

•Productivity is often measured as output per unit of labor.

•If the labor input required to produce a unit of output falls, we say that productivity has increased.

•Typically, productivity increases because of the increased use of capital, both physical and human.

The U.S. Economy in Perspective

•The economies of most European countries have been around for much longer than the one in the United States. 

•In fact, the U.S. was an undeveloped country, by world standards, until the latter part of the 1800s. Since then, it has grown to be a world powerhouse.

•Average living standards—measured by income per person or consumption per person—have increased many times just in the last century.

•Population grew from a few million during the time the Constitution was ratified to close to 300 million today.

The U.S. Economy by Itself

•While there may be 50 states, we typically look at the U.S. economy as one entity. 

•A good reason why this is appropriate is that there is unrestricted trade among the states—the Constitution prohibits almost all barriers to interstate trade. 

The U.S. Labor Force

•Currently almost 145 million U.S. residents are part of the labor force, defined as the number of those over 16 who are either working or actively looking for work. 

•A hundred years ago, the labor force measured a mere 40 million.

•Given that the average percentage of the labor force without a job has stayed about the same over time, this means that the U.S. economy is capable of creating millions of jobs every year.

•Today, the U.S. labor force is well schooled, well trained, and mobile. One in five families move each year, usually for work-related reasons.

The Number and Quality of Goods that We Produce and Consume

•For much of the early years of this country, we were an agrarian society.  Over 90 percent of the population was engaged in farminguntil mid 1800s.

•Our incomes were low, and the products that we consumed were precious few and far between.

•Today, the average U.S. resident can choose among dozens of car brands (not all manufactured in the U.S), dozens of brands and types of refrigerators, and millions of books.

•We are a consumer-oriented society.

The Information Age

•Perhaps one of the most startling changes in the U.S. economy has occurred in the area of information and communication.

•One of the reasons that we are such a “wired” society is because the cost of computing power has fallen so significantly.

The Switch to a Service Economy

•When this nation started, almost everybody worked in agriculture.

•Gradually, we became a more manufacturing-oriented economy.

•Today, less than 2 percent of the labor force is involved in agriculture, and about 17 percent is involved in manufacturing and mining.  

•The rest of the labor force is involved in services—over 80 percent! Services include the obvious—healthcare, accounting, architecture, legal research, plumbing,electrical repair, and education.

•Services also include banking and finance, accounting, travel and vacation consulting, retailing, insurance, real estate, and providing restaurant meals.

The U.S.’s Place in the World Economy

•With 4.5 percent of the world population, the U.S. generates about 25 percent of total world industrial output.

•The U.S. economy has a total national income of over $11 trillion, compared to $30 trillion for the world economy.

The U.S. Is Closely Intertwined With All Other Countries

•We live in a global economy.

•The information and communication revolution has caused the U.S. to be in closer contact with all other countries.

•With the benefits of increasing global integration also come some costs. 

•The more our businesses are dependent on manufacturing in other countries, the more they are susceptible to crises caused by interruptions in their normal global supply routes.

The U.S. Economy Is Huge and Growing

•The U.S. economy is one of the most vibrant, resilient, and flexible economies in the world.

•On average, U.S. residents have experienced increases in their standards of living over most of this country’s relatively short history.

Gross Domestic Product—GDP

•The most frequently used statistic of economic performance is gross domestic product (GDP).

•GDP is the current value of all final goods and services produced in our nation each year. It is usually expressed in trillions of dollars per year. 

Per Capita GDP

•To get a better idea of what has been happening to the average person’s standard of living, we typically have to divide GDP by population to come up with per capita GDP.

•However, per capita GDP does not tell us anything about the distribution of income, it just tells us its average level. 

Inflation and Real GDP

•Inflation is defined as a sustained rise in the average of all prices.

•When you adjust GDP for inflation, you obtain real GDP.The term real refers to the physical or actual quantities of goods and services produced.

Per Capita Real GDP 

•To compare living standards over time, we need to correct GDP for both inflation and population growth.

•The result is called per capita real GDP.

Basics of Economics

Chapter 1 introduction to economics

Economics
• Economics is a social science that studies how people allocate their limited resources to try to satisfy their unlimited wants.
• Economics is the study of how people make choices.

Needs vs. Wants
• The term need applies to the bare minimum physical necessities that allow you to survive: bare minimum of basic food, shelter, and clothing.
• Wants include those desires that you are able and also unable to pay for.
• They are unlimited.

Scarcity
• Scarcity exists because nature does not provide us with all of the resources required to satisfy our unlimited wants.
• For many people, the scarcest resource they face is time.

Goods and “Bads”
• Goods are defined as those items that give us satisfaction when we consume them. Examples include a sandwich, a cup of coffee, a warm sweater, etc.
• “Bads” are the byproducts of production and consumption that we would prefer to do without. They include pollution of any type, such as smog.
Scarcity and Decision Making
• Scarcity forces us to make choices.
• When we decide to do anything, we are implicitly deciding against doing something else. In other words, we are giving up an opportunity.

Opportunity Cost
• The opportunity cost of every economic decision we make is the value of the next-best alternative .
• It is the value of the alternative that
we had to forgo, or do without, for
the decision or choice we made.

Scarcity and Trade-offs
• Scarcity forces us to make choices.
• When we change our mind, and choose a different alternative, we face a trade-off.
• Trade-off is the sacrifice of one good or service to purchase or produce another good or service.

Resources
• Resources are things (goods or services) used to produce other goods and services to satisfy people’s wants.

Production Possibilities
• Most businesses can use their resources and technology to produce different goods or services.
• When businesses produce more
of one good or service, they must produce less of another.
• The PPC is a graphical representation of the maximum combination of two goods or services that can be produced, given a fixed amount of resources and technology.

Efficiency vs. Inefficiency
• Combinations along the PPC mean that the economy is producing its maximum output with given technology and resources.
• Those combinations represent productive efficiency.
• Any point below the PPC represents an inefficient point or output combination, where some resources are being wasted.

Economic Growth and the PPC
• Economic growth is defined as an increase in output produced by a nation, and can be graphically depicted as an increase in the production possibilities of a nation.

Rational Self-interest
• A key assumption used by economists when formulating economic theories or models is
rational self-interest.
• It is often misinterpreted as fostering selfishness to pursue just one’s monetary wealth.
• This assumption also refers to individuals pursuing goals relating to prestige, friendship, love, power, helping others, creating works of art, and many other matters that make them and those around them better-off.

Nuclear Weapons testing and The Future of the Marshall Islands

In a post colonial and post nuclear age, how can the Marshall Islanders survive? This is a question that I will answer in this essay. I would like to, first, give you some background information about the Marshall Islanders and the United States’ nuclear weapons testing program. After I talk about that, I will talk about how the Marshall Islanders have adapted to colonization and radiation, and how this is all linguistically relative. Lastly, I will talk about what we [the US] need to do in order to help ensure the rest of the world doesn’t make the same mistakes that we have.From 1945 to 1992, United States conducted over 1,000 nuclear weapons tests. The period from 16 July 1945 to 4 November 1962 is known as the atmospheric age, the age before the United States “went underground”; I believe that this happened because of pressure from the rest of the world. Beginning in 1963, the number of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States continually declined until 1992, when all testing ceased. The entire world was under pressure because of the discourse of the cold, and the displacement of power that nuclear weapons gave to the United States. The first Atomic bomb test was called ‘Trinity’ and it was tested on July 16, 1945, it took place in New Mexico, at the Alamogordo Test Range. The next Atomic explosion on earth was the bomb used in the attack on Hiroshima. I found it surprising that the next explosion what the test called ‘Able’ which was on June 30, 1946. I find this surprising because one of the main discourses for testing nuclear weapons in the first place was the cold war and the threat of communism. But, the Soviets didn’t even test any nuclear weapons until operation ‘First lightening’, which took place on August 29, 1949. Another discourse was the threat of the Soviets creating the hydrogen bomb before the United States did. In 1952 the United States went along with ‘Operation Ivy’ the first ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ ever detonated was tested it was codenamed ‘Mike’. In 1954 ‘Operation Castle’ was the response to the Soviet thermal nuclear weapons testing program, this contained the test codenamed ‘Castle Bravo’, that to this day contains the largest yield (15 megatons) ever tested by any nation worldwide. On the 22nd of November 1955 the hydrogen bomb was tested by the Soviet Union, it was designated as ‘RDS-37’. One interesting test was known as ‘Starfish Prime’ on July 9, 1962, this was a high-altitude nuclear test; it was actually detonated 248 miles above Johnston Island. The flash could be seen over 900 miles away in Honolulu, also the electromagnetic pulse disabled the traffic lights, and made television sets and radios malfunction, here in Hawaii. The United States signed the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty on August 5, 1963; they no longer conducted any atmospheric tests. Although the United States no longer conducted atmospheric tests, it continued underground tests until 1992, with ‘Operation Julin’. I think that all of this is very important to know, because if you see any of the media from the cold war era, the United States makes the Soviet Union seem like the aggressor, but looking at the data, the United States is the aggressor, they were much more extreme with all of their tests. I will talk about the discourse of the Marshall Islanders, and how the United States took advantage of it position as a trustee and a world super power. The test codenamed ‘Castle Bravo’ was tested on Bikini Island, and the wind carried fallout across most of the Marshall Islands. This fallout irradiated many people and they had adverse side affects. The United States government claims that it was due to a sudden shift in the winds, but according to various weathermen in the military, they knew that the winds were blowing to the east to begin with. The United States created the discourse that the Marshallese were “savages” which in a sense de-humanized them. Then in a propaganda video by the government, they showed the Marshallese in the ‘iron room’ getting tested for radiation. They even included the ‘Mayor’ of the Marshallese getting tested in the video, this made it seem as if the whole thing was approved by the Marshallese, by calling them savages earlier in the video, it made Americans think that we were doing these people a favor, by making them ‘civilized’. The United States was talking to the Marshallese like they were children, when they say “Now James…”, that proves that they thought that the Marshallese were inferior. The United States took advantage of the Marshallese not having an understanding of what a nuclear weapon was when they asked them if they could test the bombs. They said that they want to “turn this great destructive power into something for the benefit of mankind”. Even if you could understand English, you wouldn’t have a clue to what extent that is, at that time people didn’t understand the destructive power of these weapons, not even the ones testing the weapons. Another example of this is when President Truman said that the United States had a new “weapon of unusual destructive force”; he was talking about the atomic bomb. Another discourse was ‘the opportunity to study the radiation effects on humans’, this was an argument made to distract the American people, because there were already thousands of people to test in Japan after the bombings in World War Two. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation (formerly the ABCC) has been doing research on the effects of radiation on people since 1945. Although the Marshallese were up against the United States, they had courage and didn’t back down. Besides going to the United Nations and taking the United States government to court, they also rebel in their use of language. The Marshallese made their own words, instead of adopting English, to describe their situation and made it unique. They are creating their own radiation language, for instance radiation is called poison, also they made the distinction between which doctors actually cared about them and which ones were just monitoring radiation. This is important because they are making their own understanding of the situation, and also it shows that the Marshallese are starting to understand the effects of radiation on their own. This is important because if you don’t have a unique word for something like radiation you can’t fully understand it.I would like to conclude this by saying that we all need to be aware of the adverse effects of Nuclear weapons. It really irks me when there is a conflict between the United States and someone else and I hear someone say “let’s just nuke them”, that is one of the most ignorant things that I have ever heard, and I think that anyone who thinks that Nuclear weapons should be used should do some research on the horrible effects that radiation has on a person. The United States has already irradiated 2/3 of the mainland, and killed thousands of people, with these weapons. When I hear rumors of America talking about using so-called “tactical nukes”; that really scares me, because I’m afraid that Americans are forgetting about the effects of these weapons. In the cold war the world Americans became desensitized to these weapons, because they were always in the mass media, and propaganda was used to manipulate everyone, to make them accept these horrible weapons. We need to be aware of these things, college students of today are tomorrow’s leaders, and we can’t afford to become desensitized again.

!Kung

After reading Chapter 10 of James Spradely’s book, I have decided that I could not only be a hunter-gatherer in the Kalahari, but I think that I would like it. The thought of getting my own food right out of the wild sounds very rewarding. I think that I could be a hunter-gatherer in the Kalahari because I lived in a small town that is on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, the climates sound very similar, so I would get used to it fairly quickly. I have always been interested in the notion that I could go out and hunt an animal for my meal that night, just like the native Americans did. As long as I was part of a camp, life wouldn’t be as hard as it sounds.The thing that I found most interesting about the culture of hunter-gatherers was the lack of selfishness; everyone works for the greater good of the camp. I actually think that our society could learn a lot from the !Kung. We would learn that all of the material things in life aren’t so important. The book argues that hunter-gatherers lack what we call culture, but I don’t agree, I think that they have a different kind of culture, one that westerners have forgotten about. Their culture is more like the spirit of Aloha, where everyone works together and the members of the camp are like family members. In our society we are working an average of forty hours a week for a thing called money; to the !Kung that would seem ridiculous. Sometimes I think that it would make more sense to hunt for my meals, I think that it would feel more rewarding to me. I think that in our society today people overworked, most people work about 8 hours of the day for 5 days, then get only 2 days off, all of that in order to pay the bills. The !Kung work about 2-6 hours of the day for 1 day, then get 2 days off, they don’t have to pay for rent, utilities, or food. The !Kung have an abundance of resources, including many plants and animals. In an average day they consume about 2,000 calories, with 96 grams of protein, this is within the accordance with the RDA for the average male. A staple in the diet of the !Kung is the mongongo nut, which provides 26 grams of protein per 100 grams, an amount similar to peanuts. Also according to the text, about 10 percent of the population was over 60 years of age, as of 2005 at total of 12 percent of the population in the United States is over 65(CIA World Factbook, 2005). All of the above facts considered I think that the !Kung may have a fairly exceptional standard of living.I think that the greatest challenge to me would be getting over the language barrier. I found out that the orthography of the language is very different than any language I have ever heard. For example there are a series of clicks that have significant meaning. I have actually included an outline of how to pronounce the clicks. I think that I would need to learn the language in order to be an effective hunter, or to make any contribution to the !Kung society.Symbol Pronunciation” /” The “first” click (dental), sounds like “tsk, tsk! ” and is made by putting thetongue just behind the front teeth.”¹” The” second” click (alveolar) , is a soft “pop” made by putting the tonguejust behind the ridge back of the front teeth.”!” The “third” click (alveolo-palatal), is a sharp “pop” made by drawing thetongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth.”//” The “fourth” click (lateral), is a clucking sound like that made in Englishto urge on a horse.In conclusion I think that I could live as a hunter-gatherer successfully and indefinitely, so long as I learned the language of the !Kung. I like to think that I can do anything that another person can, given that I have time to learn how to do it. I think that the whole experience would be both exciting and rewarding, and it would be a superb learning experience. I think that everyone could learn from a society like the !Kung, and that maybe our society needs to look at a society like this and take some of the core values of sharing, family, and community, from the !Kung. With these values I think that it is possible to make a better world for everyone.

Chappli Kabab

If you ask any American if they know what a kabab is, they would most likely say “Yeah, it is a stick with meat on it.” They would be correct, those are typically known as shish kebabs, but what they most likely wouldn’t know is that there are at least twenty-five different types of kababs. Kebab simply means “grilled meat” in Persian, they are typically made of lamb, beef, fish, chicken, or a combination of lamb and beef. Kebabs are not usually made of pork because the major religion in the Middle-East is Islam which prohibits it’s consumption. To fully understand the kebab you must know a little history of this wonderful dish.It is generally thought that kebabs originated in the Middle-East as a way to cook meat with very little fuel. Because the meat was typically in small pieces (especially in shish kebab), it cooked more quickly and therefore the fire did not need as much to burn.Kebabs were the food of Persian kings and in ancient times ordinary Iranians consumed it only once a year on Norouz, the traditional Iranian new year holiday. Today, however, kebabs are not only consumed in almost every Iranian house on a weekly basis, but they have also become Iran’s number one selling fast food, and there is a similar trend throughout the whole Middle-East.I chose to make the chappli kabab for this project. The chappli kabab originates from Pakistan, it is more like a hamburger patty than a shish kabab. In Pakistan kebabs are in the category of food called Mogul food, or barbeque. The kabab is sold in Pakistan much like the hamburger is sold here. A popular way to eat chappli kababs is to wrap the meat with naan bread, and dip it into a mixture of yogurt and pepper. Naan bread is a flat bread that is cooked in a brick oven called a tandoor. Naan bread is like a cross between a tortilla and a pancake. Traditionally in Pakistan people didn’t use silverware they ate with their hands, but now more people are using forks, spoons, and knives.I chose this dish because I never tried kababs until about a year ago, after eating just one I fell in love with them. I want to share that experience with as many people as I can. You can get recipe online at www.shanfood.com, you can also order the masalas (spice mixes) online. In Pakistan a box of chappli kabab masala is only twenty rupees, which roughly equates to forty-three cents. I think that kababs in the Middle-East are like Hamburgers are to Americans. I really like the Pakistani culture and food, I want to experience as much of this culture as I can, and I think that I may try to live there in the future. I think that kababs will be around for a long time to come, because they are easy to make and delicious. Thank you for trying my dish and taking the time to read this, I hope that it was everything you expected.

Bretton Woods Institutions

In the world today the global income is more than $31 trillion a year. In some states in the Global North the average income is $40,000 a year per person. In comparison, 2.8 billion people in developing states live on less than $700 a year per person, and 1.2 billion of these people earn less than a dollar a day, which is less than $400 a year per person. Some places are in so much poverty that there are no hospitals or schools. Institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF come in to play when states form the Global North adopt the role of helping to raise the level of income and erase poverty in developing states.During World War Two, most of Europe was devastated and the world had to figure out a way to fund the rebuilding of the states that were affected. To avoid another huge recession after the war, the allies held the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The deliberation lasted for three weeks and consisted of 730 delegates from the allied states. Finally on the 22nd of July 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. The agreements set up a system of rules, procedures, and institutions to regulate the international monetary system. The International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created in 1945 as institutions to help monitor the international monetary system. A complex system of IGO’s work mutually to monitor the international financial system and to fund loans.The World Bank is IGO that consists of 5 other IGO’s. The idea of the World Bank is to give out loans to less developed countries at a low interest rate, in order to help develop them. The 5 IGO’s include the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The IBRD was formed in 1945 in order to fund the rebuilding of Europe after World War Two. Currently the IBRD’s focus is to fight poverty by financing states through low interest loans. The IDA was founded in 1960 to provide interest-free loans and grants to the poorest of developing countries (LLDC). The IFC was formed in 1956 to promote sustainable private sector investment in developing countries. The MIGA was founded in 1988 to promote Foreign Direct Investment by insuring investors with political risk insurance and by mediating disputes between investors and governments. Lastly, the ICSID established in 1956, is an administrative council that provides facilities for the conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes between member countries and individual investors.The IMF is the other main Bretton Woods Institution that was formed during World War Two and still functions today. The IMF was created specifically to “monitor” the international monetary system in order to prevent further economic recessions after World War Two. The primary mission of the IMF is to provide financial assistance to states with serious financial difficulties. States with that cannot pay their loans on time may request loans and/or organizational management from the IMF to help their national economies. In return the state is required to launch certain reforms in order to cut costs or generate more revenue. Generally the IMF requires these reforms so that states avoid fixing exchange rates that lead to fiscal, monetary, and certain political practices, and which eventually leads to economic crisis. Regardless of how these reforms are justified, these policies violate sovereignty and the IMF is one of the most criticized Bretton Woods Institutions.The World Bank is viewed like a “one-stop shop” super bank, where states can go to handle all of their finances. Within the World Bank, The IBRD and IDA are the “loan desk”, the IFC is the “stockbroker”, the MIGA is the “insurance agency”, and the ICSID is the “court” (or mediator). With the World Bank as the “super bank”, the IMF is the “credit-counseling firm” (like Debt Relief of America), except the IMF also provides loans. The IMF may also similar to the “secret service” because they monitor international currency. These Bretton Woods Institutions collectively have immense power as they essentially handle all of the states’ monies.The Bretton Woods Institutions have been successful in preventing huge economic recessions; there has not been a recession in the United States since they were formed. However, there is a lot of corruption within these institutions. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in the United States (in Washington, D.C.) and are also primarily funded by the United States. Also since the voting system is weighted based on the percentage funded by states. This gives the United States and IMF-finding states more power; and this may be the reason that the Unites States has not had a recession. The IMF has also been observed taking away states sovereignty, as it dictates states’ economic policies. Arguably, these institutions could operate like non-profit organizations, and send in managers to help manage states’ budgets and funds. The primary goal should be to resuscitate these states, and offering loans to them will not help as loan recipient states do not always use this money in the most economically effective manner. Instead, the IMF and World Bank could send in their accountants to states that ask for help and suggest economic reform. The Bretton Woods Institutions have met their goals from the World War Two era, and today there are new goals that have to be met. How soon will it be before 1.2 billion people earn closer to $40,000 a year per person is a question that The Bretton Woods Institutions should answer.

Foreign Policy Factors

In this exam I am supposed to explain which factor is the most important in determining foreign policy. I have thought about this for some time now and I researched various factors that I think are important, but I couldn’t narrow it down to just one factor. The reason that I believe this is that there are three levels of factors that effect foreign policy; each level is (generally) independent of the others. I want to start by talking about the “Peace of Westphalia”, then I will talk about different factors that effect foreign policy (which I think are most important), lastly, I will talk about the future of foreign policy and what I believe should be done.The modern system of states started in 1648 after the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), with the Peace of Westphalia, which was a treaty between various European Countries. The reason that it is important is that there were four main ideas that formed, which didn’t officially exist before. They are as follows; (1) the principal of sovereignty of nation-states and the fundamental right of self-determination; (2) the principal of legal equality between nation-states; (3) the principal of internationally binding treaties between states; and (4) the principle of non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of other states. This was the first time that state was given the notion of sovereignty, it was this treaty that established a system that respected peoples rights and that relied on international law, rather that the right of the strongest to regulate interactions between states. This is the inception of international relations in the modern world.I could not say that just one factor was the most important one in determining foreign policy. I actually have formed a theory, based on observation of history, on this matter. I think that most scholars would argue that the most important factor is the type of government in a state; this is based on the democratic peace theory. The first notion of the democratic peace theory came from Immanuel Kant, a great philosopher in the 18th century. The theory states that democracies never (or almost never) go to war with each other. I think that the foundation of this theory is right, but I think that the theory is a little flawed; it should state that governments of the same type don’t go to war with each other. The reason that I think this is if you look at any other government type, they don’t really go to war with the same type of government in a different state. I think that this theory is dangerous because it promotes world domination, there have been many wars in the name of democracy and peace, we say that we are “liberating” the people of the state that we go to war with, but are we really doing that, or are we just trying to make other states into the same type of state that we are? This is a question that I have asked my self my whole life. I am going to explain my theory in the next paragraph.I came up with this theory while I was in a movie theater, waiting for the movie to start, all of a sudden eureka phenomenon occurred, and my theory came to me. So, I would like to look at the “big picture” here. In political science, there are three “levels” of factors that effect foreign policy; the first is the “systemic” level (I call this the “International” level); second is the “state” level (domestic level); and finally, third is the individual level (the leader). Each of level is independent (mostly) of the other levels. I would like to bring one other factor into the equation, the factor is weather or not the state is a superpower, this might not sound very important, but I think that it is because it really determines what international and domestic policy will be made. This is my theory: If the state is a superpower then the domestic (state) source of foreign policy is most important; if the state is not a superpower then the most important source of foreign policy is international (systemic) source of foreign policy. The reason that I say this is, superpowers push their policy onto weaker states and try to make them have compatible or similar governments, if a weaker state rebels then the superpower will simply reprimand (overthrow, invade, or instill trade embargos) the weaker state. Also, a non super power must make it’s foreign policy based on what the superpower wants otherwise it will not prosper, and will actually start to decline (I believe that this is a remote cause of poverty in most poor states). The irony is that the thing created to control strong nations and help weak nations (the united nations) actually works the opposite way, it empowers the strong even more and limits the weak. The individual level is also important because the leader of a state makes most of the important decisions, and therefore forms actual policies, making the leader the “trigger” or actor in the equation. I good leader will know their state’s place in the hierarchy of states, and will act accordingly. The future of the world will be made by the decisions and policies of today.I believe that peace can be achieved if the world’s superpowers invest in it. They must not use violence in order to make weaker countries succumb to their policies, the old saying is “violence begets violence”, so in order to have peace, things must be done in a peaceful manner. That means no more waging wars against “ideas” (i.e. war on terrorism), no more invading states if you don’t like their policies, and create a truly free market between all states. I like to say that they [superpower’s] should lead by example, and then others will take note and follow. I think of my self as a realist, although I recognize that this is quite an idealistic idea, I think that this is a way to “regulate” the world (per se) without the “illusion” of [unenforceable] international law, therefore there is true [actual] freedom through out the world.

Fieldwork Project

One of the greatest challenges of anthropology is fieldwork, and breaking through the language barrier. It is hard to get the whole picture, unless you understand the native language. Sometimes it is hard to get the whole picture even you can understand the native language, because certain ideas that exist in English don’t exist in other languages. In linguistics you can translate certain words between languages, but in most cases translation doesn’t capture the whole idea of the word, or it leaves out part of it. I think that you can’t simply translate words, you have to know and understand the meaning of that word in its native language.For instance, when making a kinship chart, in Hawaiian your “makuahine” are equivalent to all of your aunts and your mother in English. So in Hawaiian you can’t differentiate between aunts on either side of the family or your mother easily. I interviewed a friend of mine to prove the point. The first question that I asked was, who are your makuahine (mother and aunts)? Then I asked, who are your makuakane (father and uncles)? I listed all of the names on a sheet of paper, so that I had a list of the whole generation. From there I had to figure out who my friend’s parents were. I did this by asking who gave birth to him, because I couldn’t just say who is your mom, in this case my friend said that her name is Tess. Once I had the name, I plugged it in to the next question, who is the husband of Tess? Then I drew the anthropological symbol for marriage with their names under it. The next thing to do was to find out who was married to who, so all I had to do was plug-in all of the names of the makuahine, then I drew the same symbols as before with the names under them. Once I had all of the makuahine and makuakane paired as husband and wife, respectfully. I had to find out which ones where siblings of the parents and place them on the correct side of the kinship chart. I did that by asking, who are the Kaikunane (brothers and male cousins) of your mom? Then I asked, who are the Kaikuahine (sisters and female cousins) of your dad? From there I made a table, one column was my friend’s father, the other side was his mother, and I moved the correct husband and wife pair to the correct side of the table. By that point, there were only there was three people left and two of them were married, so I who were the mother’s kaikuahine (sisters and female cousins), my friend said that she had none. After asking that last question I could logically deduce that the only men left were brothers of his father, since the last woman wasn’t directly related to anyone in the family. You can understand the native view by speaking the language, but if you don’t think in that language you may miss the whole point, I would argue that there are some things (thoughts) that you can’t translate into English, therefore an anthropologist may not be able to make his own culture understand the native view, the view may be lost in translation, and in that sense [I think] anthropology has failed. But, is it fair (or even possible) to ask everyone to think (or even understand) in the native language? Perhaps most would say no, but I don’t agree.The main goal of anthropology is to understand the native view, and you simply can’t understand it if you don’t speak the language. Language is more than the spoken word, it is also your thoughts, which will affect the way you perceive things, and will create your paradigm (way of thinking). I enjoyed this project because I got to experience some of the real challenges an anthropologist may feel. I think that the most important part of understanding another culture, is understanding their language, and the next time I wonder why someone is acting a certain way, perhaps, I will try to understand their own paradigm.

Disclaimer

I am going to publish information about all of the classes that I am taking. I may publish some of the class work that I turn in. You cannot reuse the information contained in the article without proper citation, otherwise you will violate plagiarism laws. These articles are not for the purposes of cheating or any other illegitimate use. The purpose of this is too share ideas and views with other people. I hope that you enjoy this blog.