Money, Is it really worth it?

The great debate of money has finally crossed paths with a counter intuitive intellectual like myself. One would say money has no intrinsic value at all. According to some of these sources money doesn’t even have to be seen and people still believe that it is valuable. Literally someone can say that this piece of paper that we call money has this specific amount and as long as that person who told them has someone to vouch for them one would believe them. For example people buy merchandise off of eBay all the time without knowing the specific value of an item or if the person they are paying for the item is giving them what they intend to buy. All they know as the buyer is that some numbers from their bank account are being decreased as if they purchased what they wanted. They don’t necessarily know for a fact that the person who sold them the merchandise has received the money for the item or if they are going to receive the item that they believe they purchased.

That was just one of the many examples of how the intrinsic value of money varies. Some would say it doesn’t have any at all especially with the proof provided.` It isn’t set in stone that they would get what they payed for on eBay, but people still buy merchandise off of that website everyday. Even though they know the consequences of their actions can result in loss of their hard earned money, and they might receive an item that they did not want.The point I am trying to get across is that we don’t always have to see it to believe it. In some circumstances money doesn’t even have to be present and we still believe it is there because some numbers in our bank account get changed around. So sometimes I ask myself is money even a real thing? Why do we cherish this piece of paper so much?

People can be so oblivious to the fact that we worship this piece of paper and it controls so much of our lives. Money is so powerful in the world today it’s actually crazy. It really is the one language that everyone seems to understand. It has taken over our world as we speak. We are so greedy in this world today, and we have let this piece of paper suck the life out of our country by making every little thing about money. Health care is a prime example as to why our country is greedy for no reason. We are apparently the richest country in the world, but yet we are one of the only countries who has to pay for health care. If that isn’t counter intuitive then i don’t know what is. We have the most money in the world but we have to pay the “richest country” for health care? We can’t even help save our own citizens lives for free. We have to pay for unnecessary things in this country and its quite astonishing. We let our government get out of hand with what they charge us for in this country.

It’s amazing to me how unbelievably true some of these articles are. The people in America and all around the world  just believe what people of higher power say about this piece of paper and we just go with it. We literally just sit there and accept what someone of a higher power says. According Milton Friedman The yap used huge stone disk as their money. The yap would not be able to believe how this small piece of paper could be so valuable, powerful, and easily transported around the world. When in their time they just left this huge piece of almost impossible to transport stone where it was and told everyone in the community who the new owner was. I personally believe the yap wouldn’t understand  how we have several banks all around the country and we can deposit and withdraw money so easily.  They would be amazed as to how convenient this piece of paper can be compared to that huge piece of stone. A step that may have seemed impossible back in their time has evolved as one of the best inventions of all time and one that we will use forever.

The Brazilians trusted the currency because it was actually a stable, trustworthy, and dependable method. The method was actually fake in the beginning, and it had no real value. Until they realized that this method actually worked for the better and it made things easier for everyone.  The prices of things were very clear to them and eventually turned out to work in their favor. This specific “fake money” method actually saved Brazil. There was a huge inflation in the country and it was happening at rapid speed. So someone had to come up with a plan to potentially save the country from bankruptcy and it worked. People would say using this method is absurd and risky but since it worked there isn’t really much to say.

Works Cited

 Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.

Joffe-Walt, Chana . “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR.org. 4 Oct. 2010. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil&gt;.