Prejudice means preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The word comes from the Latin "pre" (before) and "judge". People may prejudge any question, but the word is often used for an opinion about a person or group of people. English understanding of the Latin has changed in past centuries. In old English the word "prejudice" denotes the use of "good judgment" before an event, e.g., "I decided (showed prejudice) not to run with the bulls because I could have been hurt.
The word "prejudice" is often used when people dislike another group of people that are different from them. They may decide they do not like them because of their skin color (this is "racial prejudice"), religion (religious prejudice) or nationality. Such prejudices can lead to discrimination, hatred or even war.
Judges in a court of law should not be prejudiced when deciding whether someone is guilty. They should have an "open mind" so that they can make a fair decision (this is also known as not having a bias; most judges in a court of law have sworn to be unbiased when deciding a penalty). For example, if that person is the judge's friend then the judge would be prejudiced because he (or she) would not want his (or her) friend to get into trouble. In many other situations it is important not to be prejudiced, such as serving as an adjudicator in a competition or a juror in a trial.
Modern people sometimes use "prejudice" to mean "bigotry." This leaves them with two words for one thing, and none for the other.
Inflation
Inflation means that the general level of prices is going up, the opposite of deflation. More money will need to be paid for goods (like a loaf of bread) and services (like getting a haircut at the hairdresser's). Economists measure inflation regularly to know an economy's state. Inflation changes the ratio of money towards goods or services; more money is needed to get the same amount of a good or service, or the same amount of money will get a lower amount of a good or service. Economists defined certain customer baskets to be able to measure inflation. There can be positive and negative effects of inflation.
When the total money in an economy (the money supply) increases too rapidly, the quality of the money (the currency value) often decreases. Economists generally think that the increased money supply (monetary inflation) causes the price of goods/services price to increase (price inflation) over a longer period. They disagree on causes over a shorter period.
The Demand-Pull inflation theory can be said simply "too much money chasing too few goods." In other words, if the will of buying goods is growing faster than amount of goods that have been made, then prices will go up. This is most likely happens in economies that are growing fast.
Whenever a product is bought or sold beyond its real price for its worth, then Inflation of money occurs. If a company, for example, makes a small amount of goods which are sold over high quantity then it has to increase the prices so that it can manage the product quantity.
The Cost-Push inflation theory says that when the cost of making goods (which are paid by the company) go up, they have to make prices higher to make profit out of selling that product. The higher costs of making goods can include things like workers' wages, taxes to be paid to the government or bigger costs of raw materials from other countries.
However, Austrian School economists think this is wrong, because if people have to pay higher prices, this just means they have less to spend on other things.
Almost everyone thinks excessive inflation is bad. Inflation affects different people in different ways. It also depends on whether inflation is expected or not. If the inflation rate is equal to what most people are expecting (anticipated inflation), then we can adjust and the cost is not as high. For example, banks can change their interest rates and workers can negotiate contracts that include automatic wage hikes as the price level goes up.
Problems arise when there is unanticipated inflation:
Obsessive–compulsive disorder
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (often shortened to OCD) is a mental disorder that causes repeated and unwanted thoughts and/or feelings (obsessions) and actions (compulsions). Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms and can lead the person to believe that if a task is not completed, something bad will happen. Such a task may be washing hands many times, keeping the lights on or even keeping their surrounding clean. This belief leads to more anxiety and tension. The actions that someone takes to stop the thoughts and feelings can take more than an hour every day. OCD can limit one's ability to take part in relationships, the workplace, and in society in general. OCD affects around 1.2% of the world's population, and it affects the lives of around 15%. In the United States, about one in fifty adults has OCD.
Someone with obsessive–compulsive disorder has intrusive (unwanted) thoughts called obsessions. An unwanted thought is an obsession that will happen many times and is a thought that the person does not want to have. It is normal to have obsessions, but what changes is how people react to the thoughts. People who do not have OCD are able to ignore bad thoughts and move on, and/or such thoughts do not cause them much distress or anxiety. People who have OCD find it very hard to try and ignore these thoughts. However, just because someone has intrusive (unwanted) thoughts does not always mean they have OCD, but it could mean they have something else. Other brain-based disorders that could result in intrusive thoughts include include Bipolar disorder, Depression, Body dysmorphic disorder, and sometimes Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Different people will have different obsessive thoughts. Some people have obsessions about God, the Devil, or another religious figure hurting them or someone they love. Other people have obsessions about sex. They may think about things like kissing, having sex with, or touching people around them. People with OCD may worry that they will act on these thoughts.
Some people have obsessive–compulsive disorder without compulsions. This is called "primarily obsessional OCD", or "pure-O". It is thought that up to half of all people with obsessive–compulsive disorder have primarily obsessional OCD. People with primarily obsessional OCD may have a third type of obsession; that is aggressive thoughts. People with aggressive thoughts may have obsessions about hurting or killing themselves or people around them. Instead of performing compulsions, people with primarily obsessional OCD may act out compulsions in their mind or avoid the things and places that cause the obsessions.
Many people with obsessive–compulsive disorder act in a certain way to stop the obsessive thought. These specific actions are known as compulsions. To someone with obsessive–compulsive disorder, doing these compulsions are a way to stop the obsessive thought. They may also think that doing the compulsion will stop something bad from happening to them or someone they care about.
Many compulsions are similar to body tics, and up to 40% of people with obsessive–compulsive disorder have a tic disorder. Some examples of compulsion include:
Many people mistakenly think OCD is only about organizing or cleaning, but it is more than just those two. For example, someone who has excessive fear of disappointing God, fear they will go to Hell upon death, or committing sins is scrupulous, which is OCD based on religion. Compulsions of someone who is scrupulous includes excessive praying, excessive trips to their church, asking their priest the same question if what they did is a sin even though they've been told it's not, etc.