Producers vs. Consumers - which one are you?

[creator]

My desire to post this came from a discussion on the forum about the United Order, socialism, selfishness and private property.

The Producer Mind Set

· The belief that a person’s ultimate ambition is to attain human happiness for himself and for other people
· The belief that people hold the only true intrinsic value
· The belief that there is and will always be an abundance of opportunity and prosperity for every person, and that the supply of thee resources far out way all demand
· The belief that other people are the most valuable asset to create value and obtain personal prosperity
· The belief that personal happiness and prosperity is within every person’s grasp regardless of circumstance

Producer paradigms and Emotions
Abundance
Self Reliance
Heroism
Enlightened Self Interest

The Consumer Mind Set

· The conscious or subconscious belief that money and material wealth is a person’s ultimate ambition
· The conscious or subconscious belief that material things hold true intrinsic value
· The conscious or subconscious belief that the demand for wealth and opportunity far out weigh the supply
· The conscious or subconscious belief that another people should be viewed as competition for all wealth and personal opportunity
· The conscious or subconscious belief that one’s opportunities, choices, and prosperity is restricted and limited to any and all external circumstances
· The conscious or subconscious belief that people exist as tolls and resources to obtain more money and material things

Consumer Paradigms and Emotions
Scarcity
Fear of Loss
Victimization
Selfishness

Which one are you?

2 Different Paradigms

A paradigm is a belief system. It is a system of thoughts and actions that lead us to prosperity/poverty, happiness/lowliness, production/consumption, hero/victim, solutions/self-pity, etc.

We talk a lot about producer & consumer, but I don't know that we've actually defined those two terms. So in the simplist way possible:

Producer: Someone who produces more than they consume, create more than they destroy, give more than they take, take personal responsibility instead of blaming. Producers see an abundance of time, opportunity, wealth, blessings & money. (notice wealth and money are seperate, but both combined equal prosperity) Prosperity is the result of living by true principles. Producers base their decisions on how much value is created or can be created.

Consumer: Someone who consumes more than they produce, destroy more than they create, take more than they contribute, blame circumstances on external factors, choose to be the victim not the hero.
Consumers complain about scarcity (never having enough) of time, resources, money, stuff. Prosperity is a game of chance. Consumers base their decisions on how much it will cost.

In the end, the choice between these two fundamental paradigms will determine your wealth. Wealth with money, family, happiness, etc.

Which will you choose?

[ShineOn]

I agree. Mindset is probably the biggest factor. Although I would argue that you have to be free enough to even act as a producer. It's not all mindset. We could imagine a slave in the Caribbean 300 years ago. Mindset alone can't free you to become a producer, unless we twist the meaning. Mindset could get you to see that you are in fact enslaved, but then you have to do something to escape enslavement.

I guess this is my veiled vent that some individuals try to adopt the mindset that they are producers while at the same time going along just fine with the taxes, inflation, abuse of liberties, toxins in the foods, and dumbing down in schools. I also know people who have traded producing for securiy. For example, they using all their equity in their primary residence to buy several other rental properties. If you understand the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then you might not do that. Doesn't mean that you can't find a strategy that works even when the market "corrects" but you do have to be aware of it.

I've have tried hard to be as self-sufficient as I can. To me, this means learning how to do just about everything that needs to be done for growing and preparing food, building and mainting housing, financial statements, taxes, multiple streams of income, etc.

I like the game Cash Flow, but I have seen people change their finances so much that they become completely dependent on the status quo, that political and economic stability will be as good or better than it is now. Yes they are producing a lot, but they take on a lot of risk in my mind, and they are actually the opposite of self-sufficient. They are too enmeshed in the "system" and rely too much on it to stay the course, and don't really have any recourse if thing slump, let alone correct or crash. From what I see in the economy especially, that's not something I would bet on.

[ChelC]

I tried to reply here but stopped when I couldn't voice my thoughts properly - thank you shineon for doing that for me - I agree with your points.

Even now we do not have a free market - there are many unworthy hands manipulating it!