You want change. Who doesn’t. The system that we live in is crushing us.

You think politicians can deliver change? Sure they can but it won’t be the changes you had in mind.

The only way we will get real change, change for the better is enough of us change our ways.

Instead of a being a consumer be a citizen.

Instead of watching celebrities and mind numbing TV, watch the politicians and hold them to account. Let nothing slip by.Our entertainment industry is the modern day equivalent of the bread and circuses of ancient Rome. It’s job is to keep you distracted.

Instead of concentrating on what you can get, think about what you can give.

I’m starting with the man in the mirror

I’m asking him to change his ways

And no message could’ve been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make that…

Change!

(lyric taken from Man In The Mirror- Micheal Jackson)

“I believe banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies!

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, 1st by inflation, then by deflation, the banks & corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

- Thomas Jefferson 1802

It’s time you learned the truth about our money supply and how it is created, the same people who control it also have the power to cause monetary recessions and depressions.

The Federal Reserve is not federal, it is a private banking cartel.

Are you convinced that economics is just too hard to understand? Or that only those with a degree in economics have the tools necessary to understand our monetary system?

Watch The Money Masters and see how simple it all really is and how the so-called business cycles are manipulated by those who control our money supply.

Since it’s Halloween in a few days, we have a real horror original for you this week.

Bram Stokers Dracula.

This book has been made into a movie many times, but not one of them comes close to evoking the desolate chill of Castle Dracula.

Read Dracula

We rarely spend with our heads. Our purchases are most often driven by our emotions.

Advertisers know this and they target out emotions to get us to buy.

We’re all familiar with the shampoo commercials that tell us nothing about the product but which assure us that by using it we will be irresistible to the opposite sex.

What is shampoo for. Cleaning hair or as an aide to hooking up?

Why did you choose the brand that is in your bathroom right now?

What appeal did the product make to you that made you hand over even 1 cent more than the stores bargain basement brand?

Shampoo has to clean your hair. It has no other function. The $1 family bottle will get your hair clean.

So what were you really buying when you picked up the more expensive product?

A reward?

Maybe you thought you deserved a treat.

Well ok, but why would a bottle of shampoo be considered a treat?

If you view it as an indulgence then you are perceiving it as a luxury. Why? It’s shampoo!

A bunch of chemicals mixed up in a great big vat in a dirty factory, then plunked into a plastic bottle. Some luxury!

How did they convince you that this product was worth paying more for?

You are probably wondering why I am obsessing over shampoo.

Well it’s simple. Most people are up to their necks in debt for one reason and one reason only.

Some slick advertising campaign convinced them that product A was worth paying more for than product B.

“Product A would make you feel special; feel loved; feel attractive; feel superior; make others admire you and want to be like you and  make all of your dreams come true.

Yeah and I’m Father Christmas.

How about that $100 pair of cute shoes that you can’t walk in?

Obviously the function of shoes is to protect your feet, not cripple them. You screwed that purchase up didn’t you!

I’m assuming that you already had a pair of shoes on your feet when you went to the store to buy your new ones. So the need to protect your feet was already met.

Well, why did you buy them? What was driving you?

What was so critical about those shoes that you would exchange hours of your work to pay for them?

You had to have them to go with your new dress. Oh ok I understand now.

I understand that you couldn’t make a simple decision. The one where you would have brought a dress that matched the shoes that you already had.

Why yet another mobile phone? Another TV? A $50 dinner in a restaurant? Some gadget that you will never use.

Why? Why? Why?

Does money make you so uncomfortable that you can’t bear to hold on to it. Does it repulse you so much that you have to have it spent before you have even earned it in the first place?

No, I doubt that’s the case. Here is what is going on.

All around you people make value judgements.

Every minute of every day, we judge ourselves and each other.

The trouble is that we have been indoctrinated with the idea that a persons value is measured by the possessions that they have, the house, the car, the clothes, the gadgets. That our our self worth comes from having lots of shiny things. More things = more happy.

Except it’s not true. A life full of things can be empty and lonely and miserable.

Money can’t buy you happiness so you may as well stop trying. It ain’t gonna work.

The truth is that you make a few rich old men richer when you consume. And since these rich old men control the system because they really are THAT rich, they make sure that you learn your lesson early, in school, then the lesson is constantly repeated to you so you don’t forget it.

You can give thanks to the media for that. Their main role is to sell you the illusion and keep the money flowing. Your role in life is to be a good reliable consumer.

And you will be, because you will always be buying more, getting that temporary high when you buy, then searching for your next fix, because the buzz didn’t last, because it wasn’t real.

Ask yourself the question each time you reach for your wallet. What am I really buying? What need am I really trying to fill.

When you have worked that out you are halfway there.

For some people being frugal is a choice. It’s a rejection of the mad circus known as the consumer society.

When someone embarks on a frugal life through choice, there is no sense of loss over the things that they no longer consume, no sense of missing out and they really could care less if they fit in with those around them anymore or not.

They are to busy learning new skills, feeling good about using less of the earths resources, reducing their own pollution levels, becoming financially secure, losing the stress they have carried, gaining back their health, discovering who they really are. The list goes on.

It’s an entirely different situation though, when someone is forced to be frugal. When the money just isn’t there anymore to fund the lifestyle they are used too.
Then there most definitely is a sense of loss, a feeling of helplessness and of alienation from those around them who still have adequate funds.

That person will struggle to keep up appearances and will not confide the reality of their situation to those around them. Thus cutting off an important support mechanism in their life.

What’s more, for those people whose self worth was defined by their material possessions; their nice house, flash car, wallet full of credit cards and nice vacations, they not only lose their spending power, they also lose themselves. The image that they held of themselves.

Some people will rise to the challenges presented by forced frugality and they will be better, stronger, more capable people as a result. Their whole outlook on life may change and what was once important in their lives will now seem inconsequential.

If lack of money is forcing you into frugality, your outcome will depend entirely on how you view the situation.

Don’t grieve too long for the lifestyle that you have lost. The hapiness brought by owning material things is of a shallow, transitory nature.

Instead greet the challenge head on, this is a new chapter in your life. Discover how resourceful you can be.

Learn the most important lesson. Life is what you make it and the best pleasures in life are free!

Welcome to the Reading Room.

This weeks offering:

George Orwells masterpiece. His vision of a future that many feel is coming to pass.

I first read this book about 20 years ago.

Back then it was just another book to me.

But now it seems prophetic.

We have lost so much freedom.

Today we are watched by millions of cameras and we can be imprisoned for our opinions while a global elite use the whole world as they see fit.

If you’ve already read this book then you’ll probably know what I am talking about.

If not why not have a read and let me know what you think?

Read 1984