As a child growing up I always thought as money being one definite amount value. And why wouldn’t I growing up in the United States in school its taught a dollar is worth just that a dollar. But moving forward in life I have come to see that money is only worth what we as people give it. In the fifth grade I was able to travel to my families original country Haiti. It was at this time that I found out first hand that money isn’t always worth what we know it to be here in the United States. At this moment right now the American dollar is worth 65.09 Haitian Gourdes according to exchange-rates.org. At a young age I was able to see that American currency was seen as worth a higher value than Haiti’s own currency. I was able to see that faith and value had been put in American money. America having a history of being stable and a secure government gives its money a good backing. Being able to experience this taught me that the intrinsic value of money is really only based off of the value that we as people give it and how stable the government the money belongs to is. As long as there is faith in the currency whether it be dollars, stones, gold or even corn as long we give it value and are willing to trade for it then it will have value.
This would be the case of what occurred in Brazil and how the government was able to convince Brazilian citizens to trust the new currency. Brazil was going through a rough patch economically they were experiencing inflation at outrageous rates up to 80% a month. Just as Ted states in his video with inflation it causes disrruption due to their being more money in circulation and less of what ever product it then causes prices to rise at an alarming rate. Inflation being that high meant that the value of Brazil’s currency was low and prices of items were only getting higher. Causing the trust in the government to diminish, the ways in which the government tried to address this problem had barely an effect in fact in some cases it made it worse. Leaving the people of Brazil to lose faith in the value of money. In order to fix the problem they had to do just that create faith in the money system. The system that was used at the time was tarnished it would no longer be accepted or trusted by Brazilians. So in bring forth URV’s people could be tricked into thinking that money had value again. Because URV’s was a constant rate it was able to sway the minds of the citizens creating trust and in doing so putting faith back into the money. In doing that the citizens will continue you spend at a steady rate which will help the economy grow creating more jobs.
In Milton Friedman’s article “The Island of Stone Money” we are introduced to the people of Yap where there are no “valuable metals” and so as a collective the people of Yap decided to give value to stone coins. When I first read this it threw me for a loop to think that stones would be an adequate means of making purchases was beyond my comprehension. The fact that theses stone coins depending on their size could be left at another persons home but it would just be understood that this huge stone would now belong to someone else I couldn’t comprehend it. When put in comparison of the way we give value to our own money you find that it’s not so different after all. Here in the states we grew from a bartering system where goods would be traded for what we thought what was of equal value,such as trading a wagon wheel for a crate of corn. When then moved on trading gold from gold to paper money and now electronic. Now with the exchange of electronic money you never truly see the actual money its supposed to represent unless you withdrew it all. But I can go to any website enter my account number and make purchase. There is no visible transaction only the changing of numbers to my account balance to me that is not much different from the exchange of ownership the Yaps would do amongst themselves. Even though a person may have never even seen this so-called wealth by faith he owns it and is able to use it to make purchases just as we do.
WORKS CITED
Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.
Goldstein, Jacob. “The Invention of Money.” This American Life. Chicago Public Media, 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.
Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Working Papers in Economics (1991): 1-7. The Hoover Istitution Standford University. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.
“Exchange-Rates.org World Currency Exchange Rates and Currency Exchange Rate History.” Convert US Dollars (USD) to Haitian Gourdes (HTG). MBM Media, Inc, 2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.
TEDEducation. “What Gives a Dollar Bill Its Value? – Doug Levinson.” YouTube. YouTube, 23 June 2014. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
As a child growing up I always thought as money being one definite amount value. And why wouldn’t I growing up in the United States in school its taught a dollar is worth just that a dollar. But moving forward in life I have come to see that money is only worth what we as people give it. In the fifth grade I was able to travel to my families original country Haiti. It was at this time that I found out first hand that money isn’t always worth what we know it to be here in the United States. Now imagine a young boy walking into the small store near his home in America. As he glances around the store he reaches in his pocket to see how much money he has and pulls out one dollar. He knows with this dollar he is able to either purchase a soda that cost one dollar or a bag a chips that also cost one dollar. Unfortunately the the value of his dollar is not enough to purchase both items. Now if we were to move this young boy to Haiti doing the same thing walks into the store and pulls out of his pocket one dollar. But now the difference is being that he is in Haiti his money is no longer only worth one dollar. Being that he is now in a different country his dollar can not only get him that soda and the bag of chips but can also purchase some candy as well. That same dollar has increased in value just by relocating where it was spent.
At this moment right now the American dollar is worth 65.09 Haitian Gourdes according to exchange-rates.org. And that is the official rate from the bank but depending on what merchant you go to the dollar could be worth more or less. I know personally that American currency is much more in demand then the Haitian Gourde. Being that it is in higher demand there is more space to barter and discuss prices of certain services like cabs, workers, servants, and the street markets. At a young age I was able to see that American currency was seen as worth a higher value than Haiti’s own currency. I was able to see that faith and value had been put in American money. America having a history of being stable and a secure government gives its money a good backing. Being able to experience this taught me that the intrinsic value of money is really only based off of the value that we as people give it and how stable the government the money belongs to is. As long as there is faith in the currency whether it be dollars, stones, gold or even corn as long we give it value and are willing to trade for it then it will have value.
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I have remarked elsewhere on the quality of your specific illustration, Baritone. For the purposes of the E02 Cows and Chips Exercise, however, you did a good job of incorporating physical details into your paragraph.
Coded Grade: O
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