Industrialized Child Development in the Modern World

When we think of school and children, we know that they are literally the future of our society. We place a major importance in child development, and for good reason, however, is the current system the best that it can be or are we simply polishing an old boat?

Schooling has been a problem in society for a long time. Wages, pensions, lesson plans etc. have captivated the conversation. It appears that global schooling has taken a similar role with a form-factor not unlike those found in the industrialized world; schools try to punch out work-ready people like an assembly line.

This approach ignores the nurturing factor of sustainable development in children. We foster an individualistic culture through our economic system and encourage our children to compete with one another instead of guiding them to collectively ensure each other’s success.

As with our society as a whole, we disregard the application of any cultural anthropology in child development, focusing only on what happens once a child is received into the school system and ensuring they

have a streamlined education.

The system of schooling has given us equalized educational material, for this I give them an A, but with respect to overall child development, it is clear that our schooling system should take steps into ensuring that appropriate nurturing of children happens at all stages of growth, including in vitro.

Check out the 1^st chapter of the film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781069/     

What is your take on schooling and child development? Does it… make the grade? Or should schooling focus as early on as birth for strong sustainable development in children? Would that be too invasive? Or does our society need it?

Effect of Church Attendance & Religious Beliefs on Economic Growth

This post will be investigating if there are any potential effects of Church attendance and religious beliefs on Economic Growth.  In order to accurately determine this, the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance was isolated using instrumental variables suggested by their (The National Bureau of Economic Research) analysis of systems, in which Church attendance and religious beliefs were the dependant variables. (Barro & McCleary, 2014)

By conducting research on the basis of this method, The National Bureau of Economic Research has discovered that “Economic growth or Economic Development responds positively to the extent of religious beliefs, notably those in hell and heaven.” (Barro & McCleary, 2014) On the contrary, “Economic growth responds negatively to Church attendance.” (Barro & McCleary, 2014)

Basically, the first correlation demonstrates that Religious Beliefs begin to increase after economic developments (negative impacts), and the same result/correlation was found with age & life expectancy.  (Barro & McCleary, 2014)

While the second correlation just shows that the more people attend Church, the more it negatively impacts Economic growth because the religious sector uses up resources, which create an Economic Opportunity Cost.  This same correlation was seen in urbanization of rural locations (as attendance and overall religious faith/beliefs decline)  (Barro & McCleary, 2014)

Therefore, this research clearly demonstrates that there is a direct and strong correlation between religious beliefs and Economic Growth/Economic Development.  People engage in religious beliefs/activities for different reasons, but when it comes to a life changing experience, people tend to cling to religion so that they can have a sense of stability or peace of mind (as God is looking over them). 

Take a look at this PDF or click here (and click on the PDF icon); it will provide a more in-depth analysis of it the data correlation presented in this post. (Barro & McCleary, 2014)

Does this data make sense to you? Do you truly agree that Church Attendance & Religious Beliefs affect Economic Growth of a country or of the world? What are your thoughts? Explain your point of view and provide corresponding evidence to your claims (as done in the PDF file).  

What is a Utopian Society?

It’s easy to lay blame on others for the issues we currently face, we all do it. But what is a perfect society, a, Utopian society? We could certainly envision a perfect world but is it realistic? I believe a Utopian society would need to be realistic and achievable or it would be nothing more than a dream.  

It’s easy to discount those who dislike the current institution. By comparison to historical society it would appear that we are currently at the height of the civilized world.

But, what is society? Moreover, what is it now? With our current economic system we have evolved the idea of consumption into a material culture. It has served society well, from medieval ages we required a system of rewarding labour and consolidating asset value. However, this prosperity also meant that we organized ourselves around it.

Rather than implementing cultural anthropology and future planning, we are flying by the seat of our pants on a global scale. We have the knowledge, resources and manpower to create a society of abundance and sustainability for everyone. I suggest that a utopian society be one which is based on resource availability, self-actualization of man and the elimination of economics (money). From this, crime, violence, hate etc. should be nothing more but problems of an obsolete history. (Joseph, 2008)

With this new and potentially revolutionary information, tell me, what do you know about resource economics? Do you think the crutch known as money has used up its value? Or, is economics (money systems) still the only way forward and civilization would not be possible without money?

Check out this visual for some neat insights!
http://goo.gl/kKxVLN

Economics for Dummies; Introduction to Economics & the Zeitgeist Movement.

Economics is the basis of anything.  Economics is what drives today’s business world, political world, and modern society as a whole.  This series of posts that I will be creating will be related to Zeitgeist the movie.

The following is an overview of the type of topics that the movie covers:

Social Issues – Beliefs and Dis-beliefs in today’s modern society.

Cultural Identity – What is the Modern Society’s culture? How do people work? How does a culture come to emerge?

Spirituality – More of a focus on religion and facts that explain how Religion came to be.

Famous Beliefs & Myths - Talks more about superstitious beliefs that exist in today’s society (economic, religious, anthropological, and etc.)Micro/Macro-Economics – Current Economic Systems, potential flaws, and ideal methods that contribute to creating the ideal Utopian Society.

Environmental Issues – Talks more about conspiracies/discrepancies in the stories that were told to the public, and reports written to describe what happened during a specific event (ex. 9/11); the reports act as a “debrief” for people that are higher up on the political hierarchy. 

Before we start talking about Economics, what it is, how it came to be, and its flaws, as well as alternatives to Economic Systems, and some other topics listed above, I thought a video would be a fun way to introduce you to this topic.

This comedian picks 10 of the most basic basics principles of Economics and points out the flaws of it and what it really means in a simple yet with a humorous tone.

Did you find the video humorous/interesting?  What emotions did u feel during this video? Did you feel they were positive or mostly negative?  What about these complex topics and information packed ideas intrigues the most?  What topic(s) do you find most interesting?  

Note:  I will be warning you guys if sensitive topics are going to be covered in my blog post.

4 + 1 Noteworthy Examples of Political Power and Politics Overstepping Bounds.

We look up in pride at our political institutions, the idea that we vote for those in office and have the final say in power and politics. Our political culture is praised as leading the world in equality, ethics and forward thinking. Today I would like propose a list of significant politically impacting events which have shaped our world to where we are today. Without making any implications, I would just like to illustrate a curious trend.

The following are a list of political issues in human history which changed the world thereafter.

Feb 27^th, 1933:

The German parliament (Reichstag) was burned down; the state would later claim that the incident was perpetrated by communist terrorists. Shortly after many German laws were changed and this moment paved the way for events which sparked WW2. (United States Holocaust Museum, 2014) 

Following WW2, it was realized that the burning down of the Reichstag was a political gamble in order to entice fear and propaganda-based political ideology in the German people. (United States Holocaust Museum, 2014)

May 7^th, 1915:

A German U-Boat sinks the RMS Lusitania killing 128 Americans. The event drew the US into WW1, a war which they were officially neutral. The German government published paid ads in American newspapers urging people to avoid a US-UK route and explicitly listed the Lusitania as a vessel to avoid. (Rosenberg, Sinking of the Lusitania, 2014)

The Lusitania was listed as a neutral vessel with only passengers aboard. A deep-sea dive in 2008 revealed over 4 million rounds of ammunition on board. A discovery which would have sparked a serious political issue at the time (Rosenberg, Sinking of the Lusitania, 2014)

December 7^th, 1941

Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack would spark a political issue and bring the US into WW2. (Rosenberg, Attack on Pearl Harbor, 2014) The Battleships were vulnerable, the US navy was hundreds of miles away, warnings were ignored and the attack was instigated in the preceding months, regardless of the non-intervention policy. (US Navy, 2014)

August 2^nd & 4^th, 1964:

US Navy destroyers reported being assaulted by N. Vietnamese vessels on 2 separate occasions. Shortly after, US Congress allowed an invasion of Vietnam. This event turned out to be nothing but political news, the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” later revealed that of the two attacks, one only involved a bullet hitting a destroyer and the other was a destroyer firing at nothing more than radar blips in a storm. (Hickman, 2014)

September 11^th, 2001

Hijacked aircraft attacked the WTC and Pentagon. A fear-mongering political ideology brought America into Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically looking to find WMDs. On that day, curiously, all American fighter aircraft were tens of miles away or conducting a training exercise to combat hijacked aircraft, thus creating a highly confusing scenario for defense forces. If 9/11 wasn't politically motivated, it would be the only outlier of the list (Perloff, et al., 2007)

So I leave it at this, do these examples bear the tell-tale signs of power abuse? Do we foster an appropriate political culture? Are they just coincidences or could there have been intent and why do you feel so?