Money, money, and more money.
To me money is so important. We as a society need it to get by in life but money has so much power over everything we do. From the earliest humans, we have always thought about ways to trade or pay people back. I have listened to the broadcast “The Invention of Money” and read the article “The Island of Stone Money” by Milton Friedman. Friedman says that The Island of Stone Money had no metal so they had to use stones. I thought that having a big stone to pay a person is kind of a ridiculous thing to do since you don’t move the stone if it’s too heavy. Everyone around you would know that you don’t have that stone anymore and it was someone else’s.
In the broadcast “The Invention of Money” the five reporters say that in the 1950’s a big limestone meant you can buy back a member that someone else has captive and trade that person for a stone. Saying you would get your member back while everyone knew the stone was not yours anymore. While a bank account is just numbers and the bank saying how much you have when the actual money isn’t there. A bank account means so much to people when its just numbers on a screen. To think a big limestone and a bank account are to mean the same thing but are so different from each other is crazy.
In The “The Invention Of ‘The Economy’” by Jacob Goldstein. Goldstein says that the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is not a thing; it’s an idea. Also, That the U.S made the economy $500 billion dollars bigger just last year. The economy to me is just a big confusing thing. The economy is huge and so many factors affect it. Whether it makes the economy better or worse. The Yap concept of money was way easier than it is today. They just had stones and you could trade them. The limestones were such a huge part of the Yap way of life. If it could not be moved it would stay where it is all the time, just with a different owner.
So, what is money? To society today it is just a number in your bank account and not actually in your pocket. Money is part of everyone’s life today. To all of us there are many different definition of what money is. Money is just used to purchase certain items and pay our bills. Money is a staple of life today.
Works Cited
Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.
Goldstein, Jacob. “The Invention Of ‘The Economy’.” Npr.org, 28 Feb. 2014.
“The Invention of Stone Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago . 7 Jan. 2011.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
First of all, Alaska, this essay can’t possibly pass in its current state because is misses the minimum word count by almost 600 words. You’ll need a tightly-constructed 1000-word essay to pass. Considering the amount of source material you have to work with, that shouldn’t be a problem. Just work with all the ideas those sources have to offer.
As you work on a significant rewrite, remove yourself from the essay, Alaska. Remove the reader also. The source material and the richness of the concepts it contains are the subject, not you, not them. We’ve discussed in class more than once the danger of addressing the reader directly as YOU. Eliminate all instances of YOU, YOUR, YOURS, YOURSELF, and YOURSELVES. Also eliminate I. Replace them with WE, OUR, OURS, OURSELVES.
You’ve written just two paragraphs that qualify as academic essay writing, Alaska, and they need work. Your first and last paragraphs are just polite niceties, like saying hello and goodbye. Here’s a version of your Paragraph 1, converted to academic use:
As you can see, I haven’t left anything essential out of this version, but when it’s reduced to its essence, the paragraph doesn’t make much sense. The transition from “we created coins to represent cows and corn” to “the Yap had stones too big to move” is so abrupt that it appears to come out of nowhere.
Conduct the same exercise on your other paragraphs, Alaska. I’d be happy to work them over with you in person during a conference to further demonstrate and practice the skill. Or spend time with them yourself and put this essay back into Feedback Please when you have a new version for me to look at.
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