Eighty percent of the population abides by something called "herd mentality". They play a game of follow-the-leader with the twenty percent that calls all the shots. That same eighty percent then wonders why only twenty percent of the population has all of the wealth. It seems like such illogical thinking to me. The way I see it, if you want something, you find someone who has what you want and you model yourself off of them. You learn how they got to where you someday hope to be, and you strive to achieve that. But the more people I talk to, the more I realize that most people don't think like this. They follow the leader and the suggestions of others without actually stopping and thinking why they should or shouldn't be doing something. If someone tells them to put all their money in a 401K plan, they do it. If someone tells them to vote for someone, they do it. Living in such a tech savvy era, everyone wants the cliff noted version of things. Few people bother to read the fine print and to learn for themselves what something is really about. By letting a select few herd our thoughts, we are literally handing over our freedom on a shiny, silver platter. And then we actually have the audacity to complain that we feel oppressed.
Wake up, America.
Within the next five years, America will most likely face another Recession, if not a Depression. This is something that has been being said for awhile now, and it seems like it's going to happen under this next presidency. It's inevitable. Whoever our next President is will have one of the hardest presidencies in terms of the economy. Unfortunately, most people won't see it that way. They'll see a President who couldn't get the economy under control and ruined America's dollar. And the media will feed off of this. Politicians will use this to push their own political agendas. When the fact of the matter is, not even the best President could be prepared for what is about to happen to our economy next. Years of poor money management have aligned the stars just right for another Recession. In actuality, we never really got out of the last Recession. America just sort of plateaued and flat-lined. For whatever unbeknownst reasons that people praise Barack Obama, Obama is about to become the first President in history who never had the economy grow by more than 3% during any of the years that he was in office. Funny how Barack Obama has never mentioned this statistic. There are a lot of things that the government doesn't mention. There are a lot of things that they don't want you to know. They tap into our short attention spans and distract us with People.com articles about what Kim Kardashian wore to the dentist when the real attention should be put on the American dollar.
In comparison to other countries, the American dollar might not be the strongest, but it is the most powerful currency in the world. We are the only country who can freely print money, and every other country's currency is tied to ours. This is why the balance of imports versus exports is so delicate. As much as we want to bring jobs back into America, cheap labor overseas coupled with the value of our dollar compared to another country's seals the deal on foreign trade labor. But even a strong currency is a double-edged sword. While it's nice to have money in your bank account or have shares of stocks, it's only nice if that money means something. When you buy a share in a stock, you don't actually get a physical piece of that stock. Say you decide to buy a share of stock Z, worth $100. Then, nine other people decide to buy shares of stock Z. Assuming that everything divides out equally, that would give each person 10% of stock Z. But what happens when one hundred people buy shares of stock Z? Or one thousand people? How about one-hundred thousand people? What happens when there is no more of stock Z to go around? When you buy a share of a stock but there isn't any money left to back that stock up, you've got a bit of a problem. Cue stock market crash. This is why buying gold was so popular back in the day, because it was something tangible that people could get their hands on. That's why gold is so expensive. We barely have any gold left to buy though, as the Chinese have bought the majority of it up in case their paper currency ever collapses. The fight for oil is the exact same way. We could easily go out there tomorrow and convert to wind energy and solar energy. We have cars that don't run on gasoline. But we minimally use any of that and continue to fight over control of the world's oil. Why? I'll give you a hint. It's green, made of paper and controls the entire cycle that America spins on.
Even money is becoming electronic now. Everyone swipes their debit cards and their credit cards. Checks can be deposited via phones. But anything that is electronic also means that it can be controlled, to some extent. Who's to say the money was really there in the first place? The same can be said for voting polls. Paper ballots allowed for the "accident" of ballots never making it to the ballot box. The power lied in the hands of the vote counter, not the voter. Because George W. Bush totally won against Al Gore. This election, electronic voting is being used and for the first time it's clear how the American population is actually voting. It's a lot harder to manipulate an electronic vote. Which is why everyone in politics has their panties in a bunch. They're trying to prevent the 2016 election from playing out the way it's supposed to, because they know that it will be bad news for them. By Donald Trump personally funding his own political campaign, no one has any ties to him and therefore can't control him. The media is trying to blast him with all sorts of hate messages, but Trump is using the media to advance his campaign and playing them at their own game. It's plain and simple: the higher ups don't like Donald Trump because they can't manipulate him. So they don't want you to like him either. Since they can't fully manipulate your vote electronically, they're trying to do it via media slandering. That's why there is so much emphasis on the 2016 election. If voted the right way, this election could have a huge outcome on America's future. And if you don't vote, someone will speak for you. Have you ever actually met a Hillary Clinton supporter? Because I haven't. If you dig into the Clinton family history, their dirty hands are revealed and it's no surprise that Hillary is still sticking around. The government has a different agenda than that of the American people.
On May 24th, a book by an anonymous ex-Congressman will be released called The Confessions of Congressman X. The book supposedly details the truth about the American government, and how our wants and needs don't always fit the government's agenda. As the author puts it, "It's far easier than you think to manipulate a nation full of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification." As for the credibility of the book, I'm sure it will have both its positive and negative reviews. Though I can say it's something I plan to read and judge for myself.
Politics and finances might not be your most favorite subjects, but it's necessary to have some sort of an understanding of it if you want to have any bit of control in your life. This stuff isn't hard to learn. The pieces are right in front of you. I'm not even a business major, but I really encourage everyone to learn for themselves. Don't let other people herd your thoughts and your voice.
