# Economic Factors Regarding the Following



## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

What economic factors influence the following


Inflation
War
Economic inequality
Economic equality
Societal Stability
Societal Instability
Innovation
Lack of innovative spirit
Civil Liberties
Authoritarianism


R.C.
_*Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…*_

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## Razare (Apr 21, 2009)

*Inflation *- Money printing.

Some people might believe that rarity of commodities causes inflation and this isn't actually true over the very very long-run. If prices of one commodity rise too much, substitutions are made by the population, thus lowing costs. When commodities are adjusted for inflation over the very long-term, most commodities are actually declining in cost... in other words becoming more accessible economically.

Now obviously, there is a shortage of oil somewhere in our future, but that's a blip on a very long-term perspective of more widely available energy, that will ultimately get cheaper and cheaper to produce when adjusted for inflation.

So really it's just our fake dollars that causes real inflation over the long-term.

If we didn't use fake dollars, the free market would determine the price of money through inflation and deflation (very important). A healthy economy should go through phases of inflation and deflation as the market finds the correct price of money relative to goods. By printing money to avoid deflation, you just create bubbles, and hurt the poorest in society by constantly raising the cost of their products while not raising their wages at the same pace.

The rich in society benefit the most from inflation, especially rich associated with any type of government expenditure... such as government contractors, or even government employees.

*Societal Stability / Instability* - Temperature & climate.

*Innovation* - Psychological mindset of a culture and education.

*Lack of innovative spirit* - Poor/repressed/overly structured culture and lack of education.


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## NotSoRighteousRob (Jan 1, 2010)

inflation is the result of bonds being purchased and sold by the federal reserve. It is controlled by controlling the amount of currency on the market.

war is influenced by many factors, not generally limited to any 1.

Economic inequality- capitalism 
Economic equality - socialism 
Societal Stability - idealism 
Societal Instability - human behaviorism 
Innovation - curiosity, capitalism, necessity 
Lack of innovative spirit - lack of motivation 
Civil Liberties - Peace
Authoritarianism - Fear or lack of self education

economics is tricky, and I am far from an expert. I don't subscribe to the free market theory as market forces usually dictate market demand directly influencing the supply curve. However piss enough people off and the forces will make damn sure an equilibrium is reached.

I can't say much for the other items. War could be caused by economic distress, in the past it was usually over ownership of land. In the future it may end up that way again. 

3-8 are all factors that are more likely attributed to microeconomics. I would think they are most heavily influenced by the flaws in the way we perceive things and in the passage of these misperceptions. 

civil liberties wouldn't be necessary if we cared for others as much as we cared for those close to us.

I can't really knock Authoritarianism, it's the way I'd run things.


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## Ovi (Jul 5, 2012)

Inflation is necessary to prevent money hoarding and keep them flowing. Inflation is not necessary in various alternative economic arrangements.

War is the result of hierarchy and competition for resources. The only people that benefit from most wars are the upper class. It expands their power and wealth.

Economic inequality is the result of social hierarchy, which in turn is caused by property relations being imposed with force by the state. Economic equality can be achieved somewhat through wealth redistribution, although a high level of economic equality can only be achieved by abolishing social classes.

Societal stability is achieved once you convince people that they live in a fair world, that they can achieve a fair world through existing means or that nothing better is possible, whether this is true or not. Propaganda can do wonders in keeping people docile and submissive. Instability occurs when those lies no longer hold.

Innovation is maximized when living conditions are good enough, higher education is accessible to all those interested and society (economics, education etc.) encourages innovation, creativity and imagination. Lack of innovative spirit is the result of social values issues (such as consumerism, by directing people out of research towards more profitable venues, such as speculative trading), lack of real opportunity to achieve something (due to poverty among others), competition (trade secrets and patents are highly against progress; not getting paid for your results is even worse)
Will continue once I'm sober


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@_Razare_





> *Inflation *- Money printing.


True enough




> *Societal Stability / Instability* - Temperature & climate.


Why?



> *Innovation* - Psychological mindset of a culture and education.


Please explain


@NotSoRighteousRob




> Economic inequality- capitalism


Would you agree that unrestricted capitalism would be a greater culprit than capitalism that involves restraints such as anti-competition laws, some degree of government regulation of businesses and banks?




> Societal Stability - idealism


Does that require religion or not?




> Societal Instability - human behaviorism


Please clarify




> Innovation - curiosity, capitalism, necessity


What factors affect curiosity, and necessity?




> Lack of innovative spirit - lack of motivation


What triggers a lack of motivation?




> Civil Liberties - Peace


Makes sense, but wouldn't it also depend on 


Political and social values
A well informed populace capable of critical thinking?
Avoiding excessive bureaucracy (which leads to oligarchy) while maintaining the necessary checks and balances?




> Authoritarianism - Fear or lack of self education


Correct, but couldn't it also be caused by the following?


Lack of government regulation leading to corporations becoming excessively powerful and subverting the government to use as a tool for it's own interest?
A revolving door between government and the corporate sphere?
The wrong personalities in power, such as unscrupulous types exploiting crises?
Excessive bureaucracy leading to oligarchy?




> civil liberties wouldn't be necessary if we cared for others as much as we cared for those close to us.


True




> I can't really knock Authoritarianism, it's the way I'd run things.


But what if you're not the one running things? That's what everybody seems to fail to grasp...


R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## Ahlicks (May 23, 2012)

Well, for inflation, our system is simply imperfect. Money is created from thin-air and debt. To save me time and writing, here is an excerpt from a website. You may choose or not choose to deem this site worthy as a source. Regardless of your decision, the fact is that inflation is real and this excerpt is an acceptable and reasonable answer to why. Anywhoosles...

Source: The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.: Money = debt = slavery


> The United States Government decides it needs some money. So it calls up the Federal Reserve and requests say ten billion dollars. The Fed replies saying sure we will buy ten billion in Government bonds from you. So the government takes some pieces of paper, paints some official looking designs on them, and calls them Treasury Bonds. Then it puts a value on these bonds to the sum of ten billion dollars, and sends them over to the Fed. In turn the people at the Fed. draw up a bunch of impressive pieces of paper themselves, only this time calling them Federal Reserve Notes. Also designated a value of ten billion dollars to the set. The Fed then takes these notes and trades them for the bonds. Once this exchange is complete the government then takes the ten billion in Federal Reserve Notes, and deposits it into a bank account, and upon this deposit the paper notes officially become legal tender money adding ten billion to the U.S. money supply. There it is. Ten billion in new money has been created. Of course this example is a generalization, for in reality this transaction would occur electronically, with no paper used at all. In fact only three percent of the U.S. Money supply exists in physical currency. The other ninety-seven percent exists in computers alone. Now government bonds are by design instruments of debt, and when the Fed purchases these bonds with money it essentially created out of thin air, the government is actually promising to pay back that money to the Fed. In other words the money was created out of debt. This mind numbing paradox of how money or value can be created out of debt or liability will become more clear as we further this exercise. So the exchange has been made, and now ten billion dollars sits in a commercial bank account. Here is where it gets really interesting, for as based on the fractional reserve practise that ten billion dollar deposit instantly becomes part of the bank reserves. Just as all deposits do, and regarding reserve requirements as stated in Modern Money Mechanics, a bank must maintain legally required reserves equal to a prescribed percentage of its deposits. It then quantifies this by then stating, “Under current regulations, the reserve requirement against most transaction accounts is ten percent”. This means that with the ten billion dollar deposit ten percent, or one billion is held as the required reserve while nine billion is considered an excessive reserve, and can be used as the basis for new loans. Now it is logical to assume that this nine billion is literally coming out of the existing ten billion dollar deposit. However this is actually not the case. What really happens is that the nine billion is simply created out of thin air on top of the existing ten billion dollar deposit. This is how the money supply is expanded. As stated in Modern Money Mechanics, “Of course, they do not really pay out loans from the money they receive as deposits. If they did this, no additional money would be created. What they do when they make loans is to accept promissory notes in exchange for credits to the borrowers' transaction accounts.” They = the bank Promissory notes = loan contracts Credits = money In other words the nine billion can be created out of nothing simply because there is a demand for such a loan, and that there is a ten billion dollar deposit to satisfy the reserve requirements. Now lets assume somebody walks into this bank, and borrows the newly available nine billion dollars. They will then most likely take that money and deposit it into there own bank account. The process then repeats. That deposit becomes part of that banks reserves. Ten percent is isolated, and in turn ninety percent of the nine billion or eight billion one hundred million is now available as newly created money for more loans. Of course that eight billion one hundred million can be loaned out and redeposited, creating and additional seven point two billion, to six point five billion, to five point nine billion, and so on. This deposit money creation loan cycle can technically go on to infinity, the average mathematical result is that about ninety billion dollars can be created on top of the original ten billion. In other words for every deposit that ever occurs in the banking system about nine times that amount can be created out of thin air.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

Is there anything that would prevent money from equalling debt?

R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## 22575 (May 23, 2011)

Inflation is an implicit tax on a society by the government via the printing of money (watering down of currency). Most people view inflation as negative, as they view most taxes, yet inflation plays an important role in controlling wealth (in theory). Inflation is supposed to essentially take the wealth which people are sitting on and re-invest it into the system. This is due to the fact that wealth provides no economic benefits towards GDP whereas government spending/investments are directly factored into GDP (the economic health of a nation). In theory, inflation should be an efficient method of keeping the economic engine running, so long as it is on par with the increase in wealth due to growing purchasing power from innovations. Yet the reality is that wealth is unevenly distributed and thus creates an over-bearing tax on the lower class which is dealing with the fixed costs associated with a minimum livelihood.


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## 22575 (May 23, 2011)

As for innovation:

















instability/inequality:

xkcd: Money


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

The ability to conceptualize, curiousity, intelligence education, desire, and necessity are the keys for innovative spirit? I'm wondering if I'm missing anything.

For this reason, I'm asking the question in reverse: What factors tend to impair one's ability to conceptualize, be curious, to have strong desire? What tends to impair education systems?


R. C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary...


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

_Inflation- _Supply and demand. Hyperinflation, however, is caused by a loss of faith in a currency.
_War- _Fear of economic losses
_Economic inequality- _The ability to gain or lose property (be it food, housing, etc..)
_Economic equality- _Rationing of property.
_Societal Stability- _Maximized utility.
_Societal Instability- _Miniization of utility
_Innovation- _A healthy balance of societal stability and instability.
_Lack of innovative spirit- _maximized or minimized utility
_Civil Liberties- _The ability to utilize one's resources in the manner they deem fit.
_Authoritarianism- _When a group of people think they see minimized utility in a society where it's already maximized for it's current condition.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

_@bellisaurius_

_



Societal Stability-

Click to expand...

_


> Maximized utility.


It's not just important to explain it, but to explain it in a way that even a child could understand.




> _Authoritarianism- _When a group of people think they see minimized utility in a society where it's already maximized for it's current condition.


Which would explain the crisis exploitation method "the system's broke"


R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## Mitch Skiles (Aug 20, 2012)

It is very difficult to say what exactly causes anything to change in an economy. Certainly there are things that tend to result in a sort of pattern, but even those are next to impossible to "accurately" predict. A number of things can effect or create all of those


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@bellisaurius

I'm sorry if I sounded dumb, but I'm not an economics expert... 

R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

RobynC said:


> @_bellisaurius_
> 
> I'm sorry if I sounded dumb, but I'm not an economics expert...


You don't sound dumb at all, robyn. Utility is a hard idea to grasp. Basically, it's a measure of people's satisfaction, and is measured by people's preferences for one thing over another. An example of increasing utility would be if we were in school, and I wanted a pizza, but only had beer, and you wanted beer, but only had pizza. When we trade the two, we are maximizing our utility. Both of us end up more satisfied than before. 

When I describe stability as maximized utility, I mean there's not a whole lot left that people need to be satisfied. Everyone feels they've gotten a good deal, and things go on. 

The authoritarian one is basically a description of a disaffected minority.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@bellisaurius



> Basically, it's a measure of people's satisfaction, and is measured by people's preferences for one thing over another.


That's not hard to grasp

Effectively with that said
Societal stability: Everybody is generally satisfied
Societal instability: Few are satisfied
Innovation: A balance between stability and instability whereby are not totally content so they want more, yet not so discontent that they're just trying to survive as is



> The authoritarian one is basically a description of a disaffected minority.



So, basically a small group are unhappy, so they try and make themselves satisfied by dominating everybody else so they are happy regardless of anybody else?


R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

RobynC said:


> [/COLOR]So, basically a small group are unhappy, so they try and make themselves satisfied by dominating everybody else so they are happy regardless of anybody else?
> …


Pretty much, from an outsider point of view. The authoritarian would argue that they're fixing things for everyone. The difference between one person's dictator,and another's strong leader mostly comes down to whether they agree the person is actually fixing something broken with that power.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@bellisaurius



> Pretty much, from an outsider point of view.


Of course in this situation, everybody else is happy right?



> The authoritarian would argue that they're fixing things for everyone.


Which isn't true if everybody's happy as they are...


R.C.
Remember, no matter how I die: It was murder; should I be tried for a criminal offense, I probably didn't do it as I'm pretty straight laced and don't even have a speeding ticket; should I mysteriously disappear -- it wasn't voluntary…


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

RobynC said:


> @_bellisaurius_
> 
> 
> Of course in this situation, everybody else is happy right?
> ...


Hence the problem.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@bellisaurius

So what do you call it when the bulk of the population see society as being of minimal utility to them and of maximum utility to a small number of people who have manipulated the system in this direction to the detriment of everybody else and seek to balance the utility more in the favor of the majority?

I have a feeling this is something the people on top would be doing everything in their power to use their resources to stop it even if it was peaceful...


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