Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 2)

Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 2)

Continued after previous post Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 1)

Despite these weaknesses, the global coverage of these data-sets has led to their widespread adoption, most notably by the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

In response to these criticisms, a second wave of corruption metrics has been created by Global Integrity, the International Budget Partnership, and many lesser known local groups, starting with the Global Integrity Index, first published in 2004. These second wave projects aim not to create awareness, but to create policy change via targeting resources more effectively and creating checklists toward incremental reform. Global Integrity and the International Budget Partnership each dispense with public surveys and instead uses in-country experts to evaluate "the opposite of corruption" – which Global Integrity defines as the public policies that prevent, discourage, or expose corruption. These approaches compliment the first wave, awareness-raising tools by giving governments facing public outcry a checklist which measures concrete steps toward improved governance.

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country/territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index. A cursory look at the status of the various countries indicates that the growth of population and per capita income plays a vital role in the level of the corruption in the respective countries.

The following were found the top ten countries in 2011:

Sr.No.    Country              Score     Population       Per capita income   Density

1            New Zealand      9.5         44,39,400       $36,648              16.5/km² 

2            Denmark            9.4         55,43,453       $37,151              128/km²

2            Finland               9.4         54,10,233       $36,236              16/km²

4            Sweden              9.3         95,14,406       $56,956              20.6/km²

5            Singapore           9.2         51,83,700       $59,711              7,315/km²

6            Norway              9            50,02,942       $53,470              15.5/km²

7            Netherlands        8.9         1,67,40,554    $42,183              404.5/km²

8            Australia             8.8         2,27,08,496    $40,234              2.8/km²

9            Switzerland         8.8         79,52,600       $43,369              188/km²

10          Canada              8.7         3,48,97,100    $40,541              3.41/km²

Of SAARC countries, we find the ranking as below:

38          Bhutan             5.7       7,20,679              $6,112                 18.0/km²

86          Sri Lanka        3.3       2,02,77,597         $5,673                 308.5/km²

95          India                3.1       1,21,01,93,422    $3,694                 369.9/km²

120        Bangladesh      2.7       15,25,18,015       $1,790                 1,033.5/km²

134        Pakistan          2.5       18,04,73,000       $2,787                 226.6/km² 

134        Maldives         2.5       3,17,280              $8,731                 1,102.5/km²

154        Nepal              2.2       2,66,20,809         $1,388                 199.3/km²

180        Afghanistan      1.5       2,55,00,100         $956                    43.5/km²

The big five powers do have the following status:

16          UK                 7.8       6,22,62,000         $36,605               255.6/km²

24          US                  7.1       31,42,35,000       $48,386               33.7/km²

25          France             7          6,53,50,000         $35,613               116/km²

75          China              3.6       1,34,73,50,000    $8,382                 139.6/km²

143        Russia             2.4       14,31,17,000       $16,736               8.3/km²

In India, Mr.Anna Hazare with his team and Baba Ram Dev took up this issue and launched movements at great length. Among other measures, Right to Information Act and the proposal of a Lok Pal Bill are in the same direction. At international level, in the 1990s, initiatives were taken at an international level (in particular by the European Community, the Council of Europe, the OECD) to put a ban on corruption: in 1996, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, for instance, adopted a comprehensive Programme of Action against Corruption and, subsequently, issued a series of anti-corruption standard-setting instruments:

• The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Civil Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption (Resolution.
• The Recommendation on Codes of Conduct For Public Officials.
• The Recommendation on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns 

The purpose of these instruments was to address the various forms of corruption (involving the public sector, the private sector, the financing of political activities, etc.) whether they had a strictly domestic or also a transnational dimension. To monitor the implementation at national level of the requirements and principles provided in those texts, a monitoring mechanism – the Group of States Against Corruption (also known as GRECO) (French: Groupe d'Etats contre la corruption) was created. Further conventions were adopted at the regional level under the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA), the African Union, and in 2003, at the universal level under that of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

If we go through the roots we find that amongst all circumstances, some of the following are also responsible for the rampant corruption:

Information deficits

• Lacking freedom of information or Transparency.
• Lack of investigative reporting in the local media. Some of the media employees promote paid news.
• Contempt for or negligence of exercising freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
• Weak accounting practices, including lack of timely financial management.

Lack of measurement of corruption.

• Tax havens which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other nations and refuse to disclose information necessary for foreign taxation. This enables large scale political corruption in the foreign nations.
• Lacking control of the government.
• Lack in civic society and non-governmental organizations which monitor the government.
• An individual voter may have a rational ignorance regarding politics.
• Weak and slow pace of reform.
• Weak rule of law.
• Weak legal profession.
• Weak judicial independence.

Lacking protection of whistleblowers.

• Lack of benchmarking, that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison to others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in particular comparison to those who do the best work.
• Non-availability of the opportunities and incentives.
• Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example, if $1,000 is embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is easier to notice than from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds.
• Large, unsupervised public investments.
• Sale of state-owned property and privatization.
• Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., licenses, encourage bribing and kickbacks.
• Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside and outside the government which encourage and help conceal corruption and favoritism. Rotating government officials to different positions and geographic areas may help prevent this.
• Costly political campaigns.
• Interaction with officials creates the opportunities for corruption.
• War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security.
• Social conditions
• Family-, and clan-centered social structure, with a tradition of nepotism/favouritism being acceptable.
• Lacking literacy and education among the population.
• Frequent discrimination and bullying among the population.
• Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups.

How should we fight against corruption?

We can take all the steps whatever be necessary to eliminate this illness. Some suggestions are given below:

1.  The Indian Right to Information Act 2005 is perceived to have already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely. It should be made more popular and implemented effectively.  Other Countries which do not have so far, may also have such laws.  .

2.  Using regular surveys of households and businesses in order to quantify the degree of perception of corruption in different parts of a nation or in different government institutions may increase awareness of corruption and create pressure to combat it. This will also enable an evaluation of the officials who are fighting corruption and the methods used. The Peruvian organization Ciudadanos al Dia has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government agencies in order to improve.

3.  In the Indian political system, it has become usual that the leadership of national and regional parties are passed from generation to generation creating a system in which a family holds the center of power. Some examples are most of the Dravidian parties of south India and also the Congress party, which is one of the two major political parties in India. Such practice should not be promoted further so that opportunities to other competent persons be available.

4.   We may reduce the role of the state in people's lives by using the Internet for sending in required information, like applications, First Incident Reports, proceedings of the courts and tax forms, and then processing this with automated computer systems will reduce the interaction with the government staff. This may also speed up the processing and reduce unintentional human errors.

5.    All the financial transactions of every single penny must be documented.

6.    Holding Unaccounted money in hand, bank account or invested in some tangible/intangible assets be declared as an offence with severe punishment. It should be confiscated immediately and deposited with the treasury as soon as it is traced out. Those who are found to be keeping unaccounted money must be fined so terribly that they may not repeat the offence.

7.   Taxation be simplified to ensure a reasonable and transparent tax structure, backed by clean and clear enforcement and the tax/duties rates be kept so low that a general person may easily afford.

8.      Accounting of public expenses be kept open to all.

9.      Reasonable Ceiling over the real estate holding be enforced.

10.  Introduce state-funding as part of election reforms to avoid the high cost of elections and candidates' dependence on money, which make them to compromise them from the very outset.

11.  Liberal and contemporary laws be framed in easy language so that citizens can understand and respect.

12.  We should ensure to minimize discretionary powers of ministers and bureaucrats to reduce scope for misuse of such powers to favor some, especially in lucrative areas such as award of government land. Where discretionary powers are unavoidable, there must be sufficient checks and balance. After a deal is done, the relevant documents should be put up on the Net.

13.  Government and PSU staff, judiciary staff and police be paid market-indexed salaries commensurate with their responsibility to minimize the 'need' for bribes.

14.  Gambling of any kind, lottery and all those methods which ensure easy money or flattened margins on the goods/services being traded must be eliminated.

15.  Police reforms and stronger judicial accountability be introduced within a shortest time frame before the frustration of the public burst out.

16.  The businessmen if they are found to be indulged in bribing officials or unfair trade practices like unusual profit margin, black marketing, hoarding, cutting down the measurements, packing quantity etc and/or adulterating be blacklisted for not less than 10 years and barred from Government Contracts.

17.  Transparency and stricter scrutiny of government tenders/orders, including auction/sale of public-owned assets should be ensured.

If you feel necessary, kindly add up your suggestions to the above list and ensure that we must follow them if we want this earth to be heaven for all.

Live and Let others live peacefully and happily. Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption.

Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 1).

Undoubtedly, we are continuously proceeding ahead in achieving advancement of our civilization. Though it is a natural process of development as the necessity is the mother of the inventions and discoveries, we need to make efforts also to meet our growing requirements. With the passage of time, we have developed our requirements to the new heights, providing them new dimensions and classification – individual requirements, family requirements, community requirements, national requirements, global requirements and so on. Accordingly, our methods also change from individual to individual, community to community and country to the country.

Some time, our individual requirements prevail over other requirements and this step creates problems for others. Our greed or ego enters in and there starts differences. Some time, we reconcile and sit peacefully. But when we do not reconcile, we try to settle the disputed matter through many forums or methods like being polite in our exchanges, employing money and other materials/channels in the process, using force/threats etc. to create pressure and/or being diplomatic. It is also true that while settling the matters/differences, one party may feel to get some injustice and the other party may feel happy. Here too, in spite of having settled, the aggrieved party does not sit coolly unless that lacks sufficient resources to follow up. If really, there is some injustice which has been accepted due to pressure or coercive measures adopted by the opposite party, it won’t bring the desired peace of mind.

What do you mean by the word “Injustice”? It is an unjust act which affects someone or some other ones in social, financial and/or emotional terms, an act that inflicts undeserved hurt, involving unfairness to another or violation of one's rights.  Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Injustice of any kind is injustice. Even rigid justice is also injustice. But injustice never rules forever.

When the criminal court system was established its intent was to punish the guilty in a humane way and to set the innocent free. From personal experience I observe that the court system is now not about innocence or guilt. The court system is about whom you know and money, usually forcing most people into an involuntary plea. How would you expect that you are going to have fair play in getting justice? Those who get benefits out of turn appreciate judiciary overwhelming. Why does judiciary not take action against majority of its officers and employees who take bribe or do not perform their duties properly when they understand that even a minor slip or mishandling on their hands can cause terrible losses to the persons who come for seeking justice? The corrupt practices carried on in the corridors of the judiciary temples have made the process so costly that the poor people never feel easy to go to judiciary for justice. There are millions of cases pending for disposal but neither the judiciary or the Government is serious to take action for early disposal. Those who have got influence get their matters settled as per their convenience. Money and terror too prevail over the judiciary, it appears.

In Criminal Justice,   the most   important   real - world fact about our criminal justice system is that   a person accused of crimes enjoy no advantages, no matter how many rights the courts and legislatures have apportioned them. For the overwhelming majority of cases, they have no opportunity to exercise any of their rights. Instead, these rights are plea-bargained away.

First of all if you don’t have friends in high places i.e. police, lawyers, politicians, and judges then basically you are up a creek without a paddle. It has been proven time and time again that police, judges, and politicians can be in one’s pocket for the right price. Which brings me back to taking a plea, without these people in your court, your life is left in the same peoples hands In “Criminal Justice”, because the accused have robust rights, formally it would be too expensive and time consuming actually to permit them to exercise those rights, and as a result defendants are compelled to bargain them away.

Rights are now just an illusion created so that you believe you are going to be treated fairly. If the prosecutor could not threaten defendants by “upping the ante” so the court reasoned, there would be fewer guilty pleas and the system would collapse. So the prosecutor can bring even higher charges against me if I don’t plead guilty to my original charges. It makes sense in a corrupt system. Mankind must put an end to injustice, or the injustice will put an end to mankind.

Injustice with you means you are not getting what you actually deserve. Why do you not get you deserve? It means that in the process of delivering you the goods, there must have been some corruption involved either in calculation of your eligibility or in the delivery process itself. We need to find out where it is hidden.

Corruption means requesting, offering, giving or accepting, directly or indirectly, a bribe or any other undue advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper performance of any duty or behavior required of the recipient of the bribe, the undue advantage or the prospect thereof. This may be called bribe, kickback, or you can call it as “Baksheesh”.

Embezzlement is also a form of corruption. It is outright theft of entrusted funds. It is political when it involves public money taken by a responsible public official. A common type of embezzlement is that of personal use of entrusted resources; for example, when an official assigns public employees to renovate his own house.

Corruption creates trading in influence, or influence peddling in some countries. This refers to the situation where a person is selling his/her influence over the decision process involving a third party (person or institution). The difference with bribery is that this is a tri-lateral relation.

In government it takes place when an elected representative makes decisions that are influenced by vested interests rather than their own personal or party ideological beliefs. The use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain and misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality are the other forms of corruption. . It can be difficult to make a distinction between this form of corruption and some forms of extreme and loosely regulated lobbying where for instance law- or decision-makers can freely "sell" their vote, decision power or influence to those lobbyists who offer the highest compensation, including where for instance the latter act on behalf of powerful clients such as industrial groups who want to avoid the passing of specific environmental, social, or other regulations perceived as too stringent, etc.  

Philosophically, corruption is spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. An illegal act by an officeholder or bureaucrat constitutes corruption if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribe, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking etc.

Corruption differs at various places. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve more than 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, you can say it "rule by thieves".

Corruption poses a serious challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.

Corruption comes up in the shape of Patronage too. Patronage means favoring supporters, for example with government employment. This may be legitimate, as when a newly elected government changes the top officials in the administration in order to effectively implement its policy. It can be seen as corruption if this means that incompetent persons, as a payment for supporting the regime, are selected before more able ones. Many government officials are often selected for loyalty rather than ability. They are almost exclusively selected from a particular group.

Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an official is a form of illegitimate private gain. This may be combined with bribery, for example demanding that a business should employ a relative of the official controlling regulations affecting the business. This is also the practice of corruption getting popular now-a-days.

In democracy we find Electoral frauds. It is an illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. Also called voter fraud, the mechanisms involved include illegal voter registration, intimidation at polls, and improper vote counting.

Taking kickback is another form of corruption. It is called as an official's share of misappropriated funds allocated from his or her organization to an organization involved in corrupt bidding. For example, when a politician who is in charge of choosing how to spend some public funds gives a contract to a company that is not the best bidder, or allocate more than they deserve. In this case, the company benefits, and in exchange for betraying the public, he receives a kickback payment, which is a portion of the sum the company received. This sum itself may be all or a portion of the difference between the actual (inflated) payment to the company and the (lower) market-based price that would have been paid had the bidding been competitive.

Another example of a kickback would be if a judge receives a portion of the profits that a business makes in exchange for his judicial decisions. Kickbacks are not limited to government officials; any situations in which people are entrusted to spend funds that do not belong to them are susceptible to this kind of corruption.

In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials, and the risk of breached agreements or detection. Although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting bureaucracy, the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new rules and delays. Openly removing costly and lengthy regulations are better than covertly allowing them to be bypassed by using bribes. Where corruption inflates the cost of business, it also distorts the playing field, shielding firms with connections from competition and thereby sustaining inefficient firms.

Corruption also generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Officials may increase the technical complexity of public sector projects to conceal or pave the way for such dealings, thus further distorting investment. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on government.

Corruption facilitates environmental destruction. Corrupt countries may formally have legislation to protect the environment, it cannot be enforced if their officials can easily be bribed. The same applies to social rights worker protection, unionization prevention, and child labor. Violation of these laws rights enables corrupt countries to gain illegitimate economic advantage in the international market. It should not be permitted otherwise.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has observed that "there is no such thing as an apolitical food problem." While drought and other naturally occurring events may trigger famine conditions, it is government action or inaction that determines its severity, and often even whether or not a famine will occur. Governments with strong tendencies towards kleptocracy can undermine food security even when harvests are good. Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, India, more than 80% of the subsidized food aid to poor is stolen by corrupt officials. Similarly, food aid is often robbed at gunpoint by governments, criminals, and warlords alike, and sold for a profit. We have seen many examples of this nature.

The scale of humanitarian aid to the poor and unstable regions of the world grows, but it is highly vulnerable to corruption, with food aid, construction and other highly valued assistance as the most at risk. Food aid is directly and physically diverted from its intended destination, or indirectly through the manipulation of assessments, targeting, registration and distributions to favor certain groups or individuals. Elsewhere, in construction and shelter, the corrupt people find numerous opportunities for diversion and profit through substandard workmanship, kickbacks for contracts and favoritism in the provision of valuable shelter material. Thus while humanitarian aid agencies are usually most concerned about aid being diverted by including too many recipients themselves are most concerned about exclusion.

Corruption is not specific to poor, developing, or transition countries. In western countries, cases of bribery and other forms of corruption in all possible fields exist: under-the-table payments made to reputed surgeons by patients attempting for out-of-turn surgeries, bribes paid by suppliers to the automotive industry in order to sell low-quality connectors used for instance in safety equipment such as airbags, bribes paid by suppliers to manufacturers of defibrillators (to sell low-quality capacitors), contributions paid by wealthy parents to the "social and culture fund" of a prestigious university in exchange for it to accept their children, bribes paid to obtain diplomas, financial and other advantages granted to unionists by members of the executive board of a car manufacturer in exchange for employer-friendly positions and votes, etc. Examples are endless. These various manifestations of corruption ultimately present a danger for the public health; they discredit specific, essential institutions or social relationships.

Corruption also affects the various components of sports activities (referees, players, medical and laboratory staff involved in anti-doping controls, members of national sport federation and international committees deciding about the allocation of contracts and competition places). The recent Common Wealth Games Scam in India is one of its burning examples.

Fighting Against Corruption:

There are many forms of corrupt practices affecting us in many ways. Measuring corruption statistically is difficult if not impossible due to the illicit nature of the transaction and imprecise definitions of corruption. While "corruption" indices first appeared in 1995 with the Corruption Perceptions Index CPI, all of these metrics address different proxies for corruption, such as public perceptions of the extent of the problem.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO, pioneered this field with the CPI, first released in 1995. This work is often credited with breaking a taboo and forcing the issue of corruption into high level development policy discourse. Transparency International currently publishes three measures, updated annually: a CPI (based on aggregating third-party polling of public perceptions of how corrupt different countries are); a Global Corruption Barometer (based on a survey of general public attitudes toward and experience of corruption); and a Bribe Payers Index, looking at the willingness of foreign firms to pay bribes. The Corruption Perceptions Index is the best known of these metrics, though it has drawn much criticism and may be declining in influence.

The World Bank collects a range of data on corruption, including survey responses from over 100,000 firms worldwide and a set of indicators of governance and institutional quality. Moreover, one of the six dimensions of governance measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators is Control of Corruption, which is defined as "the extent to which power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as 'capture' of the state by elites and private interests." While the definition itself is fairly precise, the data aggregated into the Worldwide Governance Indicators is based on any available polling: questions range from "is corruption a serious problem?" to measures of public access to information, and not consistent across countries.

Be Happy - Become a Capitalist.

Generally, we are generally taught to see money as a tangible resource that resides in our wallet and bank account until we need to spend it. We use it to pay bills, buy products and services, and support worthwhile causes of our choice. When we need more money, we try to undertake some activity which may bring in the same like physical action of working extra hours, asking our boss for a raise, or even selling a few of our material possessions.

What we may not realize is that we can attract money into your life in much easier ways; simply by changing the way we think about money. In such process, we need to look into, what we can say, our mistakes which we make to earn more money. Let’s go on to identify those mistakes.

We Hold a Mind-Set of Lack and Struggle

Based on our own life experiences, can we say that obtaining money on a regular basis is easy or difficult? In other words, do we have to work very hard to receive enough money to cover our monthly expenses, or does money seem to come to you effortlessly? What are those sources through which we get money? Can we nurture them further? How? Are they depleting by the time passing or through money inflation? What can we take remedial action without depending upon some one else?

If we take some time to think carefully about these questions, we can find that they would reveal something very important: our overall mind-set regarding money and wealth. We can tell immediately whether we have a wealth mind-set or lack mind-set by looking at your life experiences.

Our Mind-Set Creates Our Experiences

The things you think, believe and feel on a regular basis. Here's how it works: Your thoughts trigger your emotions. Your emotional state emits a specific frequency of energy to the universe, and the universe returns events and experiences into your life, that corresponds with your emotional frequency.

When you think and feel positively on a regular basis, everything in your life seems to flow more easily, including money. When your thoughts and emotions lean more toward the negative side on a regular basis, you experience more problems, setbacks and financial lack in your life. Also important are your beliefs. Your beliefs form the structure of what is possible for you. If you believe you have to work hard to have a lot of money, you'll create exactly that experience for yourself. If you don't believe you deserve more than a certain amount of money, you'll block more from arriving. Whatever your beliefs are, they are your TRUTH, and you will subconsciously create evidence that supports that truth over and over again until you learn to do things differently.

1.      Focusing on What You Don't Have

Have you ever agonized over a shortage of money? Have you worried obsessively about not being able to pay your bills or buy something you wanted? Believe it or not, you were probably making the situation worse by doing so.

We know that lack is the condition of not having something you want - in other words, the absence of something. But the absence of exactly what may surprise you. Lack is not the absence of money, or health, or love. Those are just the symptoms of lack. At its core, lack is simply the blockage of ENERGY. When it comes right down to it, everything is energy. When you experience lack of any kind, it's a sure sign that you are cutting off the natural flow of energy through your life.

Every time you worry about your financial situation, agonize over a shortage of money, or feel stressed about your bills, you attract more of the experience of lack into your life.

2.      Focus on What You DO Have and DO Want

It may sound incredibly difficult to focus on the positive when your life doesn't look so rosy, but it is vital to find a way to do it. When you focus on the good things you already have and think about the things you want from an optimistic and hopeful state of mind, you cannot help but attract more of them into your life.

There are endless ways to begin focusing your thoughts on the things you do have and do want. Start a gratitude journal and jot down a few things each day that you are grateful for. (Hint: even if these things are not related to money, they can still get that positive energy flowing and attract more good things into your life; including more money.) You can also visualize having more money and imagine being able to pay your bills easily. The more you focus on things like this, the more they will begin to show up in your physical reality.

3.      Attracting Lack with Negative Emotions

Focusing on lack and struggle is destructive enough, but it's possible to make it even worse by infusing this focus with strong, negative emotions. Think of your emotions as the fuel that lends power to everything that manifests in your life. When it comes to money, do you often find yourself locked into negative emotions like these? Fear Anxiety Helplessness Hopelessness Pessimism Doubt Frustration Worry Jealousy Resentment.

Every time you experience emotions like these, you are creating more lack. In order to turn lack into abundance, you have to avoid investing in these negative emotions.

4.      How to Prevent Negative Emotions from Creating More Lack

There are two things you can do to prevent these emotions from creating more lack in your life:

1) First, avoiding sinking into feelings like those described above is crucial. As soon as you notice yourself starting to feel stressed or worried about money, immediately shift your focus to something else. You can engage in a bit of self-talk if it helps; say something like, "There's no point worrying about something I can't control, so I'm going to focus on something that makes me feel good." Then spend time on unrelated activities, or find a way to feel better about your financial situation.

2) Secondly, begin directing more positive emotions toward your financial situation.
Even if you have to engage in a bit of fantasizing in order to do so, you need to get some positive emotions flowing to attract more abundance. There are many ways to do this, but one that works well is to keep affirming, "I always have more than enough money for everything I need." Just keep saying it over and over again, allowing yourself to feel confident and happy that your financial needs are being met.

This is also a good thing to do when you notice you're starting to feel worried or frightened about not having enough money. Immediately turn the focus around and say, "I ALWAYS have more than enough money for EVERYTHING I need." (Say it with power and conviction in your voice, and really believe that it is so.) As you begin shifting your focus from negative emotions to positive emotions every day, you should start to notice your financial situation shifting to a better place also.

You might receive an unexpected check in the mail, you might get a bonus or pay raise at work, or you may even notice you're starting to receive unexpected gifts or discounts. These are great signs that it's working! Keep replacing negative emotions with positive as often as possible and you'll keep the good energy flowing - which will keep inspiring greater and greater change in your life.

Be Happy - Become a Capitalist.