What motivates me?


 Lets start with the definition of motivation:            
Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological one that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action.^[1]
Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex.
Motivation is an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner. "It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day."^[2 These inner conditions such as wishes, desires, goals, activate to move in a particular direction in behavior   As long as our physiological ( physical requirements for human survival) and safety needs ( personal and financial security) are fulfilled we can move onto the third level of human needs of interpersonal feeling of belonging. We all need to love and be loved by others. 

          Collective perspectives are two or more people with differing ideas working together to build something new. All opinions are considered when generating a consensus. 

          Dear President Obama,
                                       Global economic problems need global solutions!
         The US debt crisis is threatening the world economy. We must get our deficits under control, balance spending cuts, increase tax revenues and entitlement reforms. It's time we close opportunities to foreign corporations who compete unfairly against our home industries.  Initiate policies to cut back on consumption of imported products and make it more profitable to manufacturer in America. We need to curb out of control spending on unnecessary  programs and initiatives financed by foreign debt.  Let's rebuild the nation's infrastructure and hire people to do the work, considering half of the unemployed are blue collar workers, thus lowering unemployment. 
        Our cities need to be more efficient in adopting measures to mitigate the pollution causing climate change, ranging from better public transportation to building more energy efficient buildings.  It is crucial to consider the impact of climate change on business operations, and potential impacts on sustainability. Extreme weather events are more frequent now and getting worse. Change in climate has environmental, social, political, and economic repercussions. Extreme and unpredictable weather conditions, floods, droughts, rapid snow melt and rising sea levels have direct impact on commerce.

            What would happen if my family, friend and myself moved to an uninhabited island??
       First things first, we would have to divide into groups and assess our property and look for any safety precautions. We would search for a clean fresh water supply or build away to collect rain water if there is no natural source of water. After assessments we would divide the land in two (40% residential and 60% agriculture/business). All residents will get an equal share in land. We would then create shelter to protect us from the elements and all work together to ensure all needs are met. Next we would find food sources, obviously the ocean is filled with life. We would immediately start planting crops. (obviously if I was planning on taking my family and friends to live on an inhabited island I would also be taking seeds to plant and some animals like a couple of cows, goats, chickens, pigs, etc.) Every adult under the age of 60 would be required to have a job helping out on the island and child 5 years or older would be required to participate in an educational program. We would barter with other surrounding islands and would work together to become a self sufficient island actively participating with the islands around us. We would hold an election and vote on appointed individuals to represent the common good for our community.     

         Social engineering-- the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, system access. An example of social engineering would be some hacking into someone else's email password, they have access to a persons contact list, then one of those persons contact list. I think it is a bad thing.

       Rent control is intended to protect tenants in privately owned residential properties from excess rent increases by mandating gradual rent increases, while ensuring landlords receive a fair return on their investment. It promotes an economic stability but tends to create shortages. (price ceilings prevent prices from exceeding a certain maximum, causing shortages)

             ECOMOMICS....................the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services when there is a scarcity.  Economists use models (simplified framework designed to illustrate a complex process) to explain how the world has worked in the past and to predict how it will work in the future. One of the major pitfalls to models is that their simplifying assumptions make them too unpredictable.

             Positive economics ( based on facts ) is defined as the economics of "what is" where as normative economics ( based on opinions ) discusses "what ought to be". Economics are interested in explaining relationships between two variables.
   
     KEY PLAYERS:
           Adam Smith (1723-1790) philosopher and is considered the founder of modern economics. He is best known for his work The Wealth of Nations. Deep examination of the world of business affairs led Smith to conclude that society produce and purchase goods and services.

          John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist considered to be the most influential economist of the 20th century. Believed there was only one way out, that the government needs to spend money in order to put money into private sector pockets and get demand for goods and services up and running again ( use government spending to "prime to pump".

          Few economists saw the current crisis coming. Starting with the bursting of the US housing bubble in 2006 causing the values of securities tied to real estate pricing plummeting. Nothing in their "models" suggested the possibility of this kind of collapse. During this time economies world wide slowed as credit tightened and international trade declined. The United States is no longer producing what we need to sustain ourselves, we are importing much more than we are exporting. As our debt continues to rise, there will be less and less of the US to offer as security in exchange for credit.

        OBAMACARE....the Affordable Care Act represents overhaul of the country's healthcare system since passage of Medicare and Medicaid. They are claiming to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance and lower the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage and reduce the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. Good thing is that the law requires insurance companies to cover all applicants within new standards for the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex.

      Syria.......we're damned if we do, damned if we don't!  What are the limitations of US power? Why should we solve all the problems of the world? Are we in a position to affect change? Is what we're doing enough? This is an International responsibility, not just US responsibility. President Obama is talking of a one time strike. Will we have to do more? 

sources: Wikipedia, American Economic Report, New York Times