Market manipulation rough draft Topic of essay- Capitalism in it’s entirety, was not created to benefit everyone. It was created to benefit those with expendable capital, resources and power. With the gamestop short squeeze, the democratization of financial instruments, and a rise of industry ceo’s as influencers (different from warren buffet’s class of investor influencer) we are seeing a small shift in power towards the individual. But in order for us to beat an unequal system, we must seize the means of production by investing in companies that we care for and want to grow, rather than out of spite towards the financial markets. We should not perpetuate the vices of older markets and unfair systems to benefit- rather we must redefine what benefit is. Point number 1: there has never been such a thing as a free market. It is a myth- historical evidence shows that capitalism was born out of imperialism/settler colonialism and the stripping of resources from the new world. Corporations used government contracts and funding to expand into territories with violence and war, set up governing structures which solidified monopolies of trade routes, and extracted gold, silver, spices, tobacco, cotton, and coffee from the new world. They used that money to create factory system in the mother country, and only survived due to monopoly systems of trade that forced all imperial territories to buy and sell only their goods. This led to a surge in industry which benefited the rich business class investors Point number 2- Small-time investors have a very important benefit from the age of information, and the largely democratized version of investing created by apps like Robinhood. regular people now have the ability to use their Collective power in order to manipulate markets towards their benefit rather than that of the hedge funds. but what has happened with the short squeeze created on Reddit and the subsequent rise of people like Elon Musk encouraging people to buy certain stocks, is that this type of investment is happening just to make money. we are human beings; we do not live in a vacuum and our actions have a social toll that we must pay. ‘the consumer is not solely a consumer, they are also a member of their society so may well be impacted by the competition in more than one way (i.e. they might benefit from a price cut as a consumer, but lose their job as a result of the bigger corporation pushing their employer out of the market).’ by using strategies like the short squeeze to invest in companies that people do not care to build up, we are actually playing in 2 strategy Big Time investors to Stamp Out competition by making markets volatile. when markets become volatile the price of goods drops and Big Time investors can shift into cheaper Investments that will make them more money. You must invest in things that will benefit Society in the community as a whole. Take the case study of supermarkets’The facts bear this theory out. With the rise in ‘free market’ policies of the Thatcher and Reagan governments in 1980’s US and UK, perhaps we would see a dramatic rise in competition? Surely this new, free market would end monopolies and usher in a new era of dynamic, consumer responsive businesses vying for attention. Let us use food as a case study. In 1990, only 10-20 percent of global food retail was delivered by supermarkets. Today, that figure has soared to 50-60 percent. That is, over half of all food sold in the world, is sold through supermarkets. The UK has lost 90% of its specialists food retailers -that is butchers, bakers and fisheries -since the 1950’s. In Britain today, 97% of food purchased, is bought in supermarkets, with only four corporations making up 76% of those sales. In the US, 72% of food is purchased in supermarkets. As these figures continue an upward trend, we can see that monopolies are being created in food production. If we take a look and test the theory that the consumer would benefit from this process of corporate battle, proponents of the idea point to the drop in the proportion of household budgets in developed countries spent on food. During the rise of the supermarket since the 1950s, the percentage of the US household budget spent on food dropped from 32% to 7%. In the UK the proportion spent on food has dropped from 33% to 15%. But, with supermarkets making record profits, and household food budgets down, who is paying the price for our food? The answer is the farmer and the environment. In Brazil, more than 75,000 farmers have been delisted by the big supermarkets. Thailand’s top supermarket chain has carved its supplier list from 250 to just ten. The tiny country of Lesotho has actually all but killed off its domestic farming industry with 99% ofits food purchased through supermarkets utilising foreign agri-business.’ (https://climateandcapitalism.com/2013/02/28/like-unicorns-the-free-market-is-a-myth/) Point number 3- the stock market is the modern version of the earlier investment structure which benefits from the same rules as the ones setup from its incipiency- to benefit those with expendable capital while short changing everyone else. The game stop phenomenon is an age old battle to pit normal people against those with unimaginable wealth and regulatory power. . While this short market pump and dump happened, and small time investors won the battle, ultimately, the war is still on going and will continue to become harder as hedge funds are able to use their access to financial instruments, their years in the industry, and their close personal ties with industry heads and government officials to create gains for themselves over the backs of others. We must band together and invest on principle, rather than profits to strengthen public good and encourage small and midsized businesses to thrive. Additional ideas/details In many ways, the British East India Company (just The Company) pioneered capitalist economics and modern corporate structures. Following the model of the Dutch East India company, who financed their expeditions using Spanish silver from the Americas, plunged themselves into the Indian ocean economy for spices from Southeast Asia. The plan was inherently mercantilist; buy goods at cheap prices from Asia to sell at higher prices in the home country while maintaining levels of precious metals for bartering. A triangular system was setup where precious metals would finance investments that bought the spices, textiles, tea, or coffee. Mercantilist strategy involved creating easy lanes of trade for their benefit; achieved through monopolies and tariffs, both East India companies used the power of the state to secure advantages. The Dutch colonized the Spice Islands and controlled trade in the Indian Ocean through naval superiority. Like the Dutch, the English created a joint-stock venture armed to the teeth to ensure domination and safe trade. The British East India Company followed the Dutch by forcefully capturing centers of trade in India, regulating armies, and establishing predatory market/trade monopolies. This allowed for capital to flow into the hands of a new class of people to become wealthy, converting many middle class folks into wealthy businessmen. The focus of the British economy changed during the reign of the Company as their riches brought much political power, forcing the enclosure movement to occur. The newly rich investors of the Company levied parliament to privatize land, pushing peasants off pastures and subsistence farming and towards wage labor in factories in urban centers. The bourgeoisie also had the chance to improve certain technologies stolen from other places, like textile machines from India, and the ottoman invention of the steam turbine from 1551, allowing for mechanization and the industrial revolution to take place in England. Today, these monopolies are created by the revolving doors of government power, the expansion of private industry in government services, the rigging of tax laws with loopholes, and corporate welfare. The market has always been dominated by certain industries and created negative social impacts in pursuit of said profits. – so corporations are entities created for the sole purpose of seeking profits. Inorder to maximize profits, they stamp out competition. Right now, hedge funds are trying to stifle said competition. Works Cited Barrow, Ian, The East India Company, 1600-1858: A Short History with Documents (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2017). ISBN: 978-1-62466-596-7 Beckles, Hilary, McD, ‘Capitalism, Slavery and Caribbean Modernity,’ Callaloo 20, no. 4 (Autumn 1997): 777-789. Beckert, Sven, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (New York: Knopf, 2014). ISBN: 978-0-375-41414-5 Humphries, Jane, ‘Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianization of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries,’ The Journal of Economic History 50, no. 1 (1990): 17-42. Marks, Robert B., The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century, 3rd ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). ISBN:978-1-4422-1240-4 Vaping and Kids Nicotine Addiction Teens now a days have adopted to the cessation tool known has e-cigarette as a form of activity they believe is cool. E-cigarette also known as vaping, is a major concern not only in young adults but also to everyone that consumes it. Nicotine can be so addictive even to those who have never even smoked once in their lifetime. People that are heavily smokers for months even years soon are diagnose with health problems concerning their respiratory system. Many smokers believe that vaping could be an escape route for them because vaping is introduced as flavored products with less nicotine than regular cigarettes. These flavor products are not only attractive to adults, but to teens who are not ready to make right decisions on their own. Worldwide teens are more addicted to vaping because they are unaware of the associated health dangers that comes with smoking nicotine. To address adolescents on vaping they need to know the danger of smoking nicotine which effects the development of the brain. Their brains are not fully developed and yet advertisement of vapes don’t inform the major risk of how dangerous nicotine really is. In the article (Kozlowski) says e-cigarettes attract children who never would have become smokers, perhaps because they view e-cigarettes as potentially fun. How would smoking be fun when teens should know how dangerous nicotine is. The addiction of smoking is unreal and how accessible it has become to young adults. Nicotine is so strong which is why teens should not be allowed to have access to e-cigarettes and vaporizers. Within the United States vaping has increased dramatically over the past decade and according to the American Heart Association (AHA) they have released a statement calling on the federal drug administration to take immediate action to strengthen its campaign against e-cigarettes. Teens seems to be lured into vaping because they offer a variety of different flavored aerosols. The marketing industry have made it appealing to young adults and easy for them to purchase. Although they should be aware that there’s side effects with smoking. These side effects include blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate problems. Continuing use of nicotine effects the development of the brain. However, some researchers have determined that e-cigarettes could potentially be less harmful than regular tobacco products. Nicotine is highly addictive and that is something adult smoker are well aware about. To attract new customers nicotine have develop different kinds of flavors. They introduce different flavor because teens believe they are just inhaling harmless flavor steam. However, flavor vaping also has nicotine that can be addictive on the very first puff. Vaping is significantly a public health concern that escalated more towards adolescent and young adults. The reason why young adult is using vapes is because they are being utilized by smoke tricks. In the article Teen vaping time to clear the air states that there is the potential risk of using tobacco. How does addiction of nicotine occurred in our brains, well it is like a built-in reward system when you do anything enjoyable. The brain releases a natural chemical called dopamine. Nicotine takes advantage and releases an amount of dopamine which teens just love that feeling. However, in the article how nicotine affects the teen brain states that they have found conventional cigarettes and most vaping devices, nicotine to be highly addictive drug with many health risks for teens. In long-term effects one may experience cravings, depression, anxiety, and even problems focusing with sleep. Excessive amount of dopamine from nicotine can change how the brain reacts. When this happens, a person may find the amount of dopamine given is less and less which then might wonder why am I not feeling the same pleasure. Another thing that nicotine can affect is self- control which might lead to learning difficulties. Nicotine is something that everyone should be aware about because it is as addictive as alcohol. To teens they believe it is something fun to do and probably think they are doing something cool. In fact, vaping is the opposite, e-cigarettes not only harm the user but also harms the family relationship with the user. On the bright side of this there are ways to avoid vaping teens can always find hobbies to keep them entertain and avoid ever smoking in the first place. Overall, at the end teens need to be inform of the side effects of smoking nicotine because maybe then would they think twice before even smoking in the first place. References 1. How Nicotine Affects the Brain. (2020). Science World, 77(4), 18–19. 2. Drug and alcohol dependence, 2017, Vol.174, p.209-214 3. Douglass, Brenda L ; Solecki, Susan Contemporary pediatrics (Montvale, N.J.), 2017-08-01, Vol.34 (8), p.24 4. Allen, Sarah Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2020-02-16 5. Beal, Judy A MCN, the American journal of maternal child nursing, 2019-07, Vol.44 (4), p.235-235 Purchase answer to see full attachment

Mastering the Art of Online Learning: Your Guide to Acing Online Courses

Introduction

In recent years, the popularity of online courses has skyrocketed, offering learners the flexibility to acquire new skills and knowledge from the comfort of their homes. However, succeeding in online courses requires a different approach compared to traditional classroom settings. To help you make the most of your online learning experience, this article presents essential strategies and tips to ace your online courses.

1. Set Clear Goals and Plan Ahead

Before embarking on an online course, establish clear goals and objectives. Determine what you hope to achieve by the end of the course and break down your goals into manageable milestones. Create a study schedule that aligns with your other commitments, ensuring you allocate dedicated time for coursework, assignments, and revision.

2. Create a Productive Study Environment

Establishing a conducive study environment is crucial for online learning success. Find a quiet, well-lit space where you can concentrate without distractions. Remove any potential interruptions, such as notifications from social media or email. Organize your study materials and have a reliable internet connection to ensure seamless access to course materials.

3. Actively Engage in the Course

Active participation is key to mastering online courses. Engage with course materials, including videos, readings, and interactive components. Take comprehensive notes, highlighting key concepts and ideas. Participate in discussion boards, forums, and virtual meetings to interact with instructors and peers, fostering a sense of community and enhancing your understanding of the subject matter.

4. Manage Your Time Effectively

Online courses offer flexibility, but it’s essential to manage your time wisely to avoid falling behind. Create a detailed schedule, allocating specific time slots for coursework, assignments, and studying. Break down larger tasks into smaller, manageable segments to prevent procrastination. Prioritize tasks based on deadlines and dedicate focused time to each one, ensuring consistent progress throughout the course.

5. Develop Effective Communication Skills

Online courses often rely on written communication, making it crucial to hone your skills in this area. Be concise and clear in your written responses, paying attention to grammar and spelling. Actively participate in discussions, asking thoughtful questions and providing constructive feedback to your peers. Regularly check your course emails and notifications, ensuring you stay updated with any important announcements or changes.

6. Utilize Available Resources

Take full advantage of the resources provided by your online course platform and instructors. Familiarize yourself with the learning management system (LMS) and explore its features. Access supplementary materials, such as textbooks, lecture slides, and external resources recommended by instructors. Utilize online libraries, research databases, and tutorial services to deepen your understanding of the subject matter.

7. Stay Motivated and Engaged

Maintaining motivation throughout an online course can be challenging, particularly when faced with competing priorities or a lack of face-to-face interaction. Set short-term goals and reward yourself upon their completion. Connect with fellow learners through virtual study groups or online forums to foster a sense of camaraderie. Regularly remind yourself of the benefits and personal growth associated with completing the course successfully.

8. Seek Support and Clarification

Don’t hesitate to seek support or clarification when needed. Reach out to your instructors for guidance or clarification on course material. Utilize online discussion forums to ask questions or engage in collaborative problem-solving. Leverage the support services provided by your course platform or institution, such as technical support or academic advising.

Conclusion

Online courses present unique opportunities for self-paced learning and personal growth. By setting clear goals, creating a productive study environment, actively engaging with course materials, and managing your time effectively, you can maximize your chances of acing online courses. Remember to stay motivated, seek support when needed, and make the most of the available resources. Embrace the flexibility and adaptability of online learning to achieve your educational goals.