Who Is Getting You High

 Who’s Getting You High? An Investigative Journal on Predatory Economics

Introduction: The High and the Dry

• The double meaning of “getting you high.”

• How industries create dependency — on drugs, products, debt, illusions of prosperity.

• Thesis: powerful players profit from artificial highs, leaving ordinary people, communities, and nations “high and dry.”

Part I: The Pushers — Macro Industries and Manufactured Highs

Chapter 1: Big Pharma and the Prescription High

• The opioid epidemic as case study.

• Marketing strategies that create dependency.

• Profits vs. public health — how regulation failed.

Chapter 2: Big Business and the Consumer High

• Planned obsolescence in tech and fashion.

• Advertising psychology: selling dopamine.

• Debt-driven spending as a national addiction.

Chapter 3: Big Food and the Sugar Rush

• Processed food industry engineering cravings.

• Subsidies and corporate lobbying.

• Health crises as hidden costs of cheap highs.

Chapter 4: Wall Street’s Rollercoaster

• Stock bubbles, housing crashes, crypto manias.

• How ordinary investors are lured into speculative highs.

• Bailouts for the few, bankruptcies for the many.

Part II: The Local Dealers — Micro-Level Predation

Chapter 5: Payday Loans and Debt Traps

• Micro-lending, payday lenders, and predatory interest rates.

• Case studies of families crushed by debt cycles.

• Financial literacy vs. deliberate obfuscation.

Chapter 6: For-Profit Schools and False Hopes

• Student loan crises as manufactured high of “education promises.”

• Exploitation of vulnerable populations.

• Degrees of debt, not opportunity.

Chapter 7: Housing Dreams and Eviction Nightmares

• Real estate bubbles and gentrification.

• Predatory landlords, subprime lending.

• The myth of home ownership as a guaranteed high.

Part III: The Withdrawal — Who’s Left Behind

Chapter 8: The People

• Addiction, debt, burnout.

• Working-class families juggling illusions of prosperity.

• Psychological toll of living in a high-chasing economy.

Chapter 9: The Nation

• Long-term costs of short-term highs.

• Health care burdens, broken education systems, weakened workforce.

• America’s global reputation as a debtor empire.

Chapter 10: The Naïve

• Young people inheriting the fallout.

• Immigrants promised opportunity, delivered exploitation.

• Communities devastated by cycles of boom and bust.

Part IV: Detox — Breaking the Cycle

Chapter 11: Regulation or Rehabilitation?

• How policies could curb predatory practices.

• Past reforms (antitrust, FDA, consumer protections) and what’s needed today.

Chapter 12: Grassroots Resistance

• Local co-ops, alternative lending, mutual aid networks.

• Examples of communities detoxing from corporate highs.

Chapter 13: Toward a Sustainable Economy

• Redefining growth and prosperity beyond artificial highs.

• Building systems that heal instead of exploit.

• From highs and crashes to balance and resilience.

Conclusion: Staying Grounded

• Summarizing who’s really “getting you high.”

• A call for vigilance: to stop mistaking exploitation for opportunity.

• Final reflection: the economy should not intoxicate us, but sustain us.

Truth For Sale

The Truth for Sale

A Study of How Facts, Narratives, and Beliefs Become Commodities

Prologue — The Marketplace of Truth

• Opening scene: a modern example (e.g., paid political advertising, corporate PR campaigns, social media influencers selling “truth”).

• Introduce thesis: truth has become less about accuracy and more about who can pay, package, and promote it.

Part I — The History of Truth as a Commodity

Chapter 1 — Truth in the Ancient World

• Oracles in Greece: prophecy for a price.

• Medieval indulgences: spiritual “truth” traded for wealth.

• Knowledge as restricted capital (scribes, priests, monarchies).

Chapter 2 — Truth in Print and Reformation

• Gutenberg’s press: democratization of truth—or flood of competing “truths.”

• Martin Luther’s 95 Theses as a “truth pamphlet” sparking reform.

• Early newspapers: selling credibility to the highest bidder.

Chapter 3 — Truth in the Age of Empires

• Colonial “truths” written by conquerors.

• Science and exploration: truth funded by royal patronage, often slanted for national power.

Part II — Modern Truth Industries

Chapter 4 — Journalism: The Fourth Estate for Sale

• Yellow journalism and sensationalism.

• Media moguls shaping “truth” for profit (Hearst, Murdoch).

• Advertising revenue vs. editorial independence.

Chapter 5 — Truth in Politics

• Campaign consultants and spin doctors.

• Disinformation as a tool of governance.

• Lobbyists purchasing influence over public perception.

Chapter 6 — Academic and Scientific Truth

• When research is sponsored: the pharma, tobacco, and oil playbooks.

• Peer review vs. pay-to-publish.

• Data manipulation in exchange for funding.

Chapter 7 — Tech and Algorithmic Truth

• Social media’s “truth economy”: clicks, engagement, and echo chambers.

• Fake news factories and bot-driven realities.

• Big Tech deciding what truth gets visibility (moderation, shadow banning, recommendation engines).

Part III — The Human Cost

Chapter 8 — Whose Truth Wins, Whose Truth Dies

• Marginalized voices erased when they can’t afford amplification.

• Examples: Indigenous histories, slavery narratives, climate justice movements.

Chapter 9 — Truth and Mental Health

• How contradictory “truths” create confusion, mistrust, and paranoia.

• Conspiracy culture as a symptom of truth-for-sale.

Chapter 10 — Spiritual and Religious Truths

• Mega-churches and televangelists monetizing belief.

• Self-help gurus, “manifestation” coaches, and spiritual branding.

Part IV — Buying Back Truth

Chapter 11 — Whistleblowers and Leaks

• Pentagon Papers, Snowden, WikiLeaks.

• Risks and costs of truth-telling in a truth-for-sale world.

Chapter 12 — Truth as a Public Good

• Open science and citizen journalism.

• Transparency initiatives and public access to information.

Chapter 13 — Can Truth Ever Be Free?

• Philosophical reflection: is “pure truth” possible in a market-driven society?

• Future scenarios: decentralized knowledge, blockchain records, AI-driven truth arbitration.

Epilogue — What Is Truth Worth?

• Closing meditation: in a world where truth can be bought and sold, does truth itself still hold intrinsic value—or only transactional value?

• Challenge to the reader: how much would you pay for the truth?

How the Cookie Crumbles

 How the Cookie Crumbles: A Treatise on Micro and Macro Economics

Introduction: The Cookie as Wealth

• The cookie as metaphor for the economy.

• Microeconomics = how one person eats the cookie.

• Macroeconomics = how society decides who gets cookies and how many.

• The inevitability of “crumbs”: scarcity, inequality, inefficiency.

Part I: Microeconomics — How Individuals Bite the Cookie

Chapter 1: The Recipe of Choice

• Scarcity, opportunity cost, and trade-offs.

• Utility theory: why people choose the bites they do.

• The psychology of consumption (behavioral economics).

Chapter 2: Sharing the Cookie

• Supply and demand basics.

• Markets as arenas of exchange.

• Elasticity: why some cookies are luxuries, others necessities.

Chapter 3: Crumbs at the Table

• Households and budgeting.

• Business firms and profit motives.

• Labor as the work of baking and breaking cookies.

Chapter 4: The Invisible Hand in the Cookie Jar

• Prices as signals.

• Competition vs. monopoly.

• Market failures: when the cookie doesn’t divide fairly.

Part II: Macroeconomics — How the Cookie Jar is Managed

Chapter 5: Baking a Bigger Cookie

• National income, GDP, and growth.

• Investment, innovation, and productivity.

• Short-term vs. long-term gains.

Chapter 6: Crumbles in the Business Cycle

• Booms, busts, and recessions.

• Inflation (cookie too expensive) vs. deflation (cookie losing value).

• Employment as distribution of bites.

Chapter 7: Who Holds the Cookie Jar?

• Governments as regulators and bakers of last resort.

• Fiscal policy: taxation and spending as cookie redistribution.

• Monetary policy: central banks managing the “dough.”

Chapter 8: Crumbs Across Borders

• International trade: cookies crossing tables.

• Exchange rates and currency competition.

• Globalization: one giant cookie factory or uneven crumbs?

Part III: When the Cookie Breaks Wrong

Chapter 9: Inequality and the Uneven Crumble

• Wealth concentration: a few whole cookies, many crumbs.

• Social mobility and barriers to access.

• The economics of privilege and poverty.

Chapter 10: Externalities and the Bitter Crumbs

• Pollution, climate change, and shared costs.

• The tragedy of the commons: when everyone grabs too many bites.

• Public goods and why no one wants to pay for them.

Chapter 11: The Cookie Jar of the Future

• Automation and AI in production.

• Universal basic income and new ways of sharing cookies.

• Sustainability: baking cookies without exhausting the oven (resources).

Conclusion: Crumbling Toward Fairness

• Why cookies will always crumble — imperfection of systems.

• The balance between efficiency and equity.

• Final reflection: the real test of economics is not baking the biggest cookie, but deciding how the crumble is shared.