There are many ways to make profit, but a key one is to take advantage of arbitrage. Arbitrage the difference in price between one market and another market. A trader might take cotton from Egypt where it's cheap, and deliver it to Norway, where it becomes worth a lot more even though it's the same object. Someone might buy something at a garage sale, then sell it on ebay, where there are more buyers. Someone might short the stock market when it is expected to boom, because they have insider knowledge. Or maybe they buy gold, knowing in a year it will be worth more because you know someone who works at the federal reserve and they're going to inflate the currency. This is arbitrage by way of the difference in price between one point in time and another, and profiting from that. Any difference in price for an object when going from one point in space-time to another is arbitrage.

Imagine you are a billionaire, and you have several media companies all over the world at your disposal to express your ideological views on to a culture. You also desperately want to make billions more. What do you do? You instill the culture with values that give you profit, because you want them to behave in ways that give you money. Through ads, but also through manufactured culture that seems genuine but is basically just an ad. Basically, you trick them by changing their culture. You support ideologies that support industry and consumerism, aka corporate propaganda.

Arbitrage can be created artificially in this way. If you convince the public through the media that "X" is GOING to happen, and then "Y" happens, this culture-wide surprise is a form of arbitrage that can be profited from. People's motivations suddenly change because of new information, and if you are there ready to sell them things when that happens, it can be very profitable.

You want the public to think things are going one way, when suddenly it's revealed things are actually going a different way, in a way that creates a sudden demand for a product you've been buying up cheaply in mass quantities. While everyone was getting ready to Zig, you prepare for the Zag, and then when the Zag happens no one was prepared for the Zag and you stand to profit because of the demand generated.

The Rothschilds famously used this manufactured arbitrage to great effect in the Napoleonic wars. Everyone was waiting on the results of the Battle of Waterloo, and the Rothschilds hired a fake messenger to come in to town and inform everyone the battle had been won by Napoleon, which sent the price of gold plummeting. The Rothschilds then bought millions of dollars of gold, and the next day when the real news came, that in fact Napoleon had lost the Battle of Waterloo, the price of gold skyrocketed and the Rotshchilds' net worth went up over 10x overnight, and they sold the gold back to the market, capitalizing on the arbitrage they had created. This was the move that took them from wealthy to hyper-wealthy. This move essentially created the capital they used to overtake the central banking system of Europe through the 1860s and beyond.

It is about creating arbitrage through public deception, coaxing the public to prepare to zig when the reality is zag, and then profiting when the zag comes to reality and everyone's expectations suddenly change. Surprise = Arbitrage.

This gambit obviously can work quite well, but it requires fooling the masses enough to affect the market for a short time, and having enough knowledge and influence to know the actual outcome while being able to fool the masses in to believing the opposite. Only a rare few people on this earth have enough power/influence/money to do this sort of scam, and it certainly did not end after this successful Waterloo profiteering.

Is this still happening? The election seemed like a big trick to me, the media told everyone we were definitely going to zig, no question (elect Hillary) but then all of a sudden there's a zag (Trump gets elected). This creates surprise, which gives people in the right position the ability to profit or gain power.

Another example is college. The culture has been thoroughly programmed to believe college = good, even if you have to pay a mortgage's-worth for it. However now there aren't enough jobs, even in STEM fields, and the college admins are walking away whistling, like nothing happened, cash lining their pockets. And the media continues the corporate-funded "STEM shortage" narrative, to continue driving down white-collar labor costs. The "zig" is "go to college and you'll have a great career", which was true for a while, but now the "zag" turns out to be "there aren't nearly enough jobs, even if you did STEM and went to a good school. Also your loans don't go away in bankruptcy and we will garnish your wages". The schools, banks, and government profit greatly from all the student loans, and our surprise at finding out the truth is met with silence or backlash.

A third example is religion. 24% of Americans believe Jesus will return in their lifetimes. "Just keep chasing that carrot, you'll get it soon!" This is what most religion says. "All that sacrifice to your owners will totally have been worth it, don't worry!" And so on. Promising rewards that never come, in exchange for abuse that never ends. They tell you the road is going to turn to the right, but it turns to the left. They benefit from your incorrect expectations, and will continue the abuse as long as they keep benefiting from it.

A fourth example is the military. Zig: "We're patriotic heros, we'll pay for your college, we're defending America, join us to fight for freedom and to spread democracy!" then the zag is slowly revealed: "We don't really care if you die in wars or have PTSD, as long as those opioids from Afghanistan get shipped here by the CIA on time. You are a tool of an oppressive empire, and we own you."

Lying to people to generate profitable arbitrage is a fixture in our culture, and it's high time we start calling it out for what it is: Abuse.