If we think about it, Stone money played a great role in the development of our currency today. Today our currency is all computerized, merely a number on a computer screen. There is no physical displacement of the currency rather the ownership is changed. This characteristic of our modern currency is similar to how yaps stone money was not moved from one place to another rather just the ownership was changed. However, we do differ from them in other aspects such as being able to make transactions over long distances in seconds , deposit money at one location and take it out at another to suit our need. We have came a long way from stone money but the fundamentals have not changed . we really can not keep the money forever . we have to spend that some however . to earn a college education you have to give money to earn more money . its kind of look like investment . you give some and get more in the end . i think now every other country want some kind of other gold , diamonds etc. instead of money . we are the country that make their own money . which is make other country think its good to take some other stuff instead of their money

Money is the mental reassurance of wealth. The real value of money depends on the value we mentally place on money. One might question what does mental reassurance of wealth have to do with money when it is actually the only reason we are able to keep track of the value. We will continue to change what we mentally think about the worth of money. The intrinsic value of money will forever change. America converted money of France into gold upon their request. This gave the assumption that they did not think U.S dollars was worth its weight in gold. This changed the mental picture of the value of the U.S dollar. People began to think less of the U.S dollar which decreased the U.S dollar value.

The Yap might think our concept of exchanging money hand and hand to be bizarre. The Yap never exchanged their coins, probably because their coins were to big to simply move. The Yaps changed the ownership of their coins without moving them. If you wanted to buy something from someone you would take ownership of the huge stone. This made it possible for people to never see the stone but know the value. This is similar to in the U.S where someone has money in their bank but never actually see physical money.

Brazil had a similar problem as the U.S with the value of their money. Similar to the U.S Brazil’s citizens lost faith in their currency. Their faith in the currency was decreasing but soon was restored when a new idea of money was created. The idea of a different kind of currency was called Unit of Real Value, which wasn’t actually a real thing. URVs was a currency that stayed consistent because the real currency was used to determine how much URVs one had. While the currency worth would change the URVs would remain the same which gave the citizens hope in the URVs and boosted the economy.

The public’s faith in the value of money is so important because we determine what anything is actually worth. It doesn’t matter if its money, technology, or even our time. We put a price on on things and we determine the worth. This out the public out opinion on a items worth our money system would mean anything.

Works Cited

Chana, Joffe-Walt”How Fake Money Saved Brazil”NPR.org http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil

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

Renaut, Anne . “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo.com. 13 Apr. 2013. 30 Jan. 2015. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html

What is the purpose of money?  We, as a nation, have grown up thinking that money was a tool for the trading of goods and other services.  For some, it is a matter of survival.  How we feed each other or how we purchase clothes to keep us warm.  However, if you really think about it what does a piece of paper have to do with our worth?

Out in the Pacific Ocean, there is a tiny island named Yap.  Hundreds of years ago, their society agreed that they would use the limestone deposits as money.  This limestone was usually only used big things and not everyday purchases.  The only problem for them was that it was very hard to transport these big stones.  During the first transportations, one ended up at the bottom of the ocean.  Although you could not physically touch it, everyone decided that it was still good.

The limestone that was used is very similar to Bitcoin, which became popular two years ago.  Bitcoin is a digital payment system which allows transactions to occur directly between users without the use of a middle man.  As you can see, neither of them can be physically touched but are still extremely valuable.  Bitcoin on the other hand, has some people that doubt its value.  These people talk about how it has no sense of authority or a central bank.   They also bring up that a bitcoin is worth whatever a random person is willing to pay, meaning that the seller will look for the person that is willing to pay the most.

In my 20 years of living, I don’t think I was ever given a straight forward answer on what money was or what the value of money truly is.  One thing we know for sure is that money makes the world go round.

Work Cited

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

Renaut, Anne . “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo.com. 13 Apr. 2013. 30 Jan. 2015. <https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html&gt;.

Planet Money, By. “The Invention of Money.” This American Life. N.p., 7 Jan. 11.

Reeves, Jeff. “Bitcoin Has No Place in Your – or Any – Portfolio.” MarketWatch. MarketWatch, 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.

Every country in the world has some type of currency. The United States and Canada use dollars, the United Kingdom uses the pound sterling, and most of Europe uses the euro.  Each of these currencies have different values and ever changing exchange rates. For example, when I went to Canada this summer one US dollar was worth more than one Canadian dollar and this got me thinking what is the difference? I was not complaining because the exchange rate was in my favor but I was very curious.  One question that kept going through my mind was “Can one US dollar purchase more goods that one Canadian dollar?”

While the United States currency is officially the US dollar, some countries have more unique currencies. One example of a country that uses a unique currency is the island of Yap. The Islanders of Yap used stones as their currency (Friedman 3). The interesting about is that some of the stones were too large to carry around in a pocket, so they were left somewhere and people would just know who owns the stone today. In a way it is not too different than the money in our bank accounts. I know the money is in my savings account but I cannot see it unless I went to the bank and withdrew it. So with this in mind money is physically real but only worth what society values it for (Glass). One example would be if someone says “I will give you one dollar for the soda,” then one dollar is worth a soda but if a different person said “I will give you a soda for $3,” then one dollar is not worth a soda. Money is what society says it is worth, but the value of the United States dollar is almost universal because most stores will not charge someone more than two dollars for a soda .

While I am not an economist or economics major, I know how bad inflation can be. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s, Brazil had a chronic inflation problem (Joffe-Walt). The problem in Brazil was that prices kept rising and people had no faith in money, also most people were probably not  saving their money because over time it would lose its value. If I lived in Brazil at this time I would have no faith in my country’s money system. Rampant inflation makes people feel that their money is losing value every day because in a way it is. Currently, I do have faith in the United States dollar because it is considered a stable currency worldwide and while the value of the dollar has inflated, the inflation rate is very low.

When I was in high school I remember hearing about bitcoin for the first time. At first I had no idea what a bitcoin was and my first question I asked my friend was “Which country created bitcoin?” The correct answer was no country did, but it was created by someone and a bitcoin is not an actual coin. The most interesting thing about a bitcoin is that it is not owned or backed by any bank (Reeves). So a bitcoin’s value is based off what it is traded for in the market exchange. The value of a bitcoin can vary from day to day just like a stock. With a bitcoin, it literally is worth what people say it is worth which makes me wonder if a bitcoin really worth anything in real value.

Over the last two days my concept of money has not changed, although I do feel that I have learned a lot more about currency and some aspects of economics. I still do have faith in the United States dollar. I know it is a stable currency and at least in my lifetime has not experienced rampant inflation. Although I understand how the Yap island currency can be similar to the United States currency today. An example would be that when I got paid this summer I was paid via direct deposit, so I knew I had the money, but I did not physically have it in my possession. Another reason I had faith in the money in my bank account was that I used it to pay off a credit card bill so I know the numbers in my bank account have value. In brief, I believe money is very valuable and a necessary thing for society to thrive.

Works Cited

Friedman,Milton. “The Island of Stone Money”. Hoover Institution. February 1991. Web.

Glass, Ira. “This American Life.” 423: The Invention of Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Reeves, Jeff. “Bitcoin Has No Place in Your – or Any – Portfolio.” MarketWatch. N.p., 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Going to class on the first day, I was paying close attention and I heard something be told about the concept of money.  Trying to get a clear grasp around the the ideas and questions being brought aloud in class, i started to put two and two together and realize that it all makes sense and was quite tricky yet very clear.

Because of the assignment told to read about in class which was “Stone Money”, i came across a bunch of ways that the strategy they had for using giant stones was actually quite similar to how we use money today in our world.  Some people don’t  understand the true value of money.  What is money?  To some people, its the reason why they get up every morning to go about starting their daily grinds.  To some people, this piece of paper runs the world.

In the article “How Fake Money Saved Brazil”, they say,”you have to slow down the creation of money, they explained.  But, just as important, you have to stabilize peoples faith in money itself.  People have to be tricked into thinking money will hold its value.”  This was fake money that everyone believed to be real after time.  This is a stone money story because you can question what money really is besides a piece of paper or just metal. Could money be anything?

A term GDP was created along with the economy after the great depression to try to save the country.  This term means Gross Domestic Product.  This was created to stand for the value of all the goods and services produced in the country in a years time.  A problem shortly arose from this says the article, “The Invention of the Economy.”  In this article, they state,”rather than a limited measure of the economy, it becomes this Cold War gauge of who’s doing better, who is winning.”  This could obviously cause wide problems throughout the world if everyone is trying to compete.  There is something else told from this article that you would not know at first glance.  They state, “GDP isn’t a thing, its an idea in which keeps changing.  Just last year, the US tweaked the way its calculated and instantly, it was $500 billion bigger.

This all has something to do with how we as people together can not see certain things.  To answer questions brought up earlier, we don’t really know what money is.  To be completely honest, numbers are made up, money is made up.  They’re just things that someone had created and got everyone to believe.  People don’t realize that about money.  It is not the key to life.  To bring my argument back to our class discussion, id like to bring up something said about how money and work actually works.  You as a human go to work, you get paid through and online account in which someone made up and got people to believe in.  The irony of it is that the person or people together paying have an account that just shows a lower amount of money and the person who is being paid has an account that went up some numbers.  Then from there, you just swipe a plastic card somewhere to get something of value out of it.  So money started from being a stone, to paper and coins, and then to being in an online account and using a piece of plastic.  So again to bring it back, what really is money?

WORK CITED

Goldstein, Jacob. “The Invention Of ‘The Economy'” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016

Goldstein, Jacob. “The Island Of Stone Money.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

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 tell a person that this piece of paper has this amount of significant value and as long as the person that told them has someone to vouch for them one would believe them. It’s amazing to me how unbelievably true some of these articles are. The people in America and all around the world actually just believe what people of higher power say about this piece of paper and we just go with it. The Yap would not be able to believe how this small piece of paper could be so valuable and easily moved around the world. When in their time they just left the piece of stone where it was and told everyone in the community who the owner was. The Yap wouldn’t believe how we have several banks all around the country and we can deposit and withdraw money so easily. A step that may have seemed impossible back in their time. The Brazilians trusted the currency because it was actually a stable, trustworthy, and dependable method. The prices of things were very clear to them and eventually turned out to work in their favor. The Japanese’s plan to invigorate the economy was a failure and actually made the currency drop eleven percent.

Stone Money

What is money actually worth? Seems like a ridiculously stupid question, but the concept of money is a tricky one when you actually attempt to wrap your head around it, because in our everyday lives (at least here in America,) we just view tangible money as exactly that…money. If you had asked me what a dollar is worth when the class first met, the answer you would have received is “A dollar.” Just like $10, $25, $120,384, and so on, the answer would be whatever the “number value” is. Not a value other than the quantifiable units we make them out to be. In the This Is American Life podcast, The Invention of Money, the concept is thrown out that money is FICTION, by pointing out the housing crisis of 2008 when the stock market crashed, and billions were “lost” from the banks. But, where’d did the dollars actually go? That threw me off at first, but reading the other articles, I honestly thought about it. I thought about the pay I get direct deposited in my bank account. It isn’t like physical dollar bills are actually IN my bank account….only numbers.  But, what about the $10, $25, or $120,384 bank statement that’s in your checking or savings account? It’s “supposedly” worth whatever the bank statement says, but do we know that that’s what it’s actually worth? Whenever you make a transaction or a deposit with a credit/debit card, no physical, tangible dollars get moved around…only numbers do, so how is that the same thing as having physical money in your wallet? Where is the money in your bank account even going, or coming from? The same goes for a physical check. The paper and ink that the physical check is only costs a minuscule amount of money, but we determine the WORTH by whatever amount is written on it. There’s nothing PHYSICALLY different about a blank check and a check with the order a certain number of dollars to be transferred…other than the number of dollars that are ordered to be transferred, so what makes that check worth more physical money than the blank one if they’re pretty much physically the exact same thing?

The Southern Pacific Island of Yap had an unorthodox method of exchanging currency in the first few decades of the 20^th Century. According to Milton Friedman’s essay “The Island of Stone money,” the Yap realized that they needed a form of currency to be used there, which is essential in most (if not all) societies in the world. Their currency was different, because they imported and used limestone discs as money. Not limestone discs that you could fit in your pocket or easily move, but large discs, some of which couldn’t be easily moved due to the lack of machinery and automobiles on their small island. They used these to make large purchases, like buying a house from someone for example. They couldn’t physically take possession of the huge limestone disc from the buyer because of its size and weight, but wherever the disc lay, they had total possession of that particular disc. Then if the new owner of that disc decides to “sell” it for something else, they then would give the rights to the limestone disc to the person they’re purchasing their item from. And the cycle would keep going and going, and the same stone was being traded as currency without ever physically “changing hands.” And they were used, not necessarily for being imported from a far off island, but almost off of the strength of the fact that they owned the huge discs despite them never leaving its original physical spot. You or I would consider the limestone to be a nonsensical form of currency and WORTHLESS since it can’t be moved. But, that sounds very similar to how bank accounts work when you make a transaction. So if we’d deem their currency “worthless,” when aspects of the way we exchange money are strikingly similar…would that then deem our currency worthless also?

Another striking situation that gives the hint that money is a fictional concept of itself is Brazil’s economic crisis in the 1990s. They had a major problem where their unit of currency, the cruzeiro, which was consistently losing value and led to massive inflation of 80% a month. According to the NPR’s Planet Money article, How Fake Money Saved Brazil, stores had to change their prices literally every day. Their example: “The guy in the grocery store would walk the aisles putting new price stickers on the food. Shoppers would run ahead of him, so they could buy their food at the previous day’s price.” There would be no way to keep up with the daily rise of prices on everyday necessities, so the new prime minister of Brazil enlisted the help of four students studying in Rio. Tasked with saving the country’s economy, they developed a currency that wasn’t even real. They created the URV (Units of Real Value) to be a stable form of currency that didn’t inflate. Brazil would continue to use the cruzeiro, but everything would be listed in URVs, which gave the illusion of stable prices, thus restoring faith in Brazil’s economy, establishing a physical URV currency called the real, and bringing its citizens out of poverty.

So with those two examples, and the other articles that were posted, it seems to me that all types of currency holds no true, solid value…just the value of being BACKED by other people’s belief that the currency holds some type of worth as a means of trading in exchange of goods and services. It’s almost like saying, “Here’s $5. It’s worth $5 because the government says that it’s worth $5, and the people believe in the worth of the dollar” and not because there is an actual quantifiable value in that $5…but simply because they said that it was worth 5 dollar units. Just like the bank account example used earlier, it’s a backing by whatever particular bank that your money is “in.” That’s why you can buy things with a credit/debit card, not because your account is tangible, but the money in the account is backed by the bank, and whoever you received your purchase from has the faith in your bank that they will be paid the money that’s routed from your account when your purchase is made. There’s nothing PHYSICALLY in your account, and it only contains a number, and companies are willing to accept what isn’t even there because of the faith in the number of invisible dollars belonging to it. In my opinion after this assignment, money is a subjective item/concept that only exists so people can’t physically (or virtually) receive something for nothing. So the real question is, is the worth of the dollar ITSELF actually powerful…or is it the ECONOMY’S FAITH in the dollar’s, or whatever currency’s value, what makes it powerful even when it isn’t physically there?

Works Cited

Planet Money, By. “The Invention of Money.” This American Life. N.p., 7 Jan. 11.

“How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” N.p., Feb. 1991. Web.

“The Island Of Stone Money.” NPR. NPR, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Money, money, money. The extremely complex and arguably fictional foundation of our economy. I always wondered growing up how did a piece of paper with some inscriptions and fancy images become the social fabric of our world? When you put a U.S dollar bill side by side to monopoly money you understand that one is worth something and the other isn’t. Although, monopoly money like “real” money is simply paper from our trees. Therefore, we must question, why is money valuable? Pre Colonial era we traded among each other valuables in which each person needed. We valued precious and rare metals or jewels such as diamond, gold and silver. We valued goods as currency and only cared about items which every colony needed. If a man had a pig but needed a cow he would search for that person that needed a pig and had a cow. This exchange of goods made perfect sense and never involved a paper bill and a complex system of valuing that bill. Money in its self has no real value to it, it isn’t rare and its not pretty. We the people make money valuable, we make the value “real”, but should we?

When i came across the article by Milton Friedman named The Island of Stone Money I was intrigued. The island of Yap is extremely underdeveloped with barely any valuable items. When they discovered what seemed to them a precious rock called Limestone on a neighboring island they began using it as their form of “currency.” Although, they went about system in a very odd way. According to Friedman these men and women could trade these large pieces of stone for other valuables they needed or important services such as the retrieval of a fallen soldier. Here was the catch; technically you never had to physically have the rock or even have it in your possession. You didn’t have to even see it, it was all based on the idea of the rock and a trust system that everyone knew who the real owner of it was. This was relevant when Friedman mentioned that the wealthiest man on the island never even had his Limestone he just saw it and was vouged for by his crew. (Friedman, pg 2) Reading this made a light bulb shine bright inside my head. I soon realized that this ridiculous form of “currency” is a lot like other more civilized countries. The point is not the physical aspect of money that gives it value, its simply the idea of money and what it represents that makes it valuable. And that raised the question, is this the right way to run an economy?

Friedman also discussed an instance where the french technically owned some portion of gold. However, they never physically retrieved the gold, instead a deal was made with the U.S and was stored in a drawer on our homeland.(Friedman) This is another perfect example of how nothing but an idea satisfied a whole nation and was understood by others. Although, when you put it in perspective was that valuable metal doing any good for people just sitting around? The answer is no. The best two examples I can present you with is that of the Bitcoin and URV. Online banking is a complete joke and makes no sense. When we use bitcoin we are essentially transferring images and codes over to our bank. In no way, shape or form is this real money. But, we except it as real money wit real value! How is something intangible in an exchange of goods essentially, valuable? We aren’t physically handing anything over to the bank but they still accept it. My favorite example however is that of URV, which I read bout in the article How Fake Money Saved Brazil. As proposed by the title URV is exactly what it says, it is fake money. Brazil was in a state of high inflation rate which in turn practically made the price of items go up either everyday or week.(Chana Joffe-Walt) The country was in turmoil so a couple of guys came up with the idea of replacing cruzeiro with a virtual “fake” currency and they called it URV. The worst part is this idea was accepted, used and succeeded. It had no real value therefore it was literally fake. These two examples prove my point that money just seems to be an idea. It seems crazy to me that much of peoples happiness and status in this world is based off of solely an idea with no true value.

Recessions or economic depressions effect everyone. The way the economy is set up values this idea of money over true goods and resources. After reading these articles my perception on money has changed tremendously. It raised the question, is this the right way to go about it? Was the old way of trading goods and food and resources more useful? This isn’t just for me to decide.  Although, it is sad to see people lose their happiness and parts of their lives struggling over the obtainment of technically a pure intangible idea.

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;.

Renaut, Anne . “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo.com. 13 Apr. 2013. 30 Jan. 2015. <https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html&gt;.

“The Invention of Stone Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago . 7 Jan. 2011.

Talking Money

P1. Money is what makes the world go ’round. We all recognize the importance of money in our capitalist society. After all, we spend over 20 years of our lives receiving an education for what? To earn money.

P2. In 1991, anthropologist Milton Friedman visited an island over 8,000 miles away in the subregion of Micronesia called Yap.  The official currency of the island is fei. The currency is made up of large sandstone donuts ranging from one foot in diameter to twelve feet. These “coins” are typically taller than a man, and weigh more than a car. As a result of the size of these stones, you are not required to obtain the coins in order to possess them. After a transaction, the new owner of the stone is recognized which disposed the need to carry it around and hold it. As a result of this, there are situations in which rich families of Yap have never even seen their wealth.

P3. Years ago, relatives of this family were hunting for fei. After the discovery of a massive fei stone, the family captured it and tied it to their boat in an attempt to bring the money home. Disastrously, there was a violent storm the night of their voyage back to the village. As a result, the family had no other choice but to save their lives and drop the fei overboard. Once back at the village, they had to testify for their money that was dropped. They explained its massive size, the wealth it held, and declared that it was lost through no fault of their own. The family was then allowed to keep the stone as their own with absolutely no loss of value. Now, it is accepted in their village that there is a stone in the ocean that has never been seen yet holds massive wealth.

P4. Does the idea of not actually having your money on-hand sounds trivial? Well the Fei is very similar to the American currency system.

P5. Before 1933, American currency was backed by gold. This meant that the trade of dollar bills were promises of gold which was held in banks. After 1933, the decision was made that we may no longer trade money for gold at our banks. The American dollar was officially unbacked.

P6. As of today, our money is still unbacked and the only true value of the dollar is what one can buy with that dollar. Further, is now optionally paperless. The money that is held in the bank is utilized to give loans. The money that resides in the bank is essentially fictional numbers with no actual cost, the actual money may not even be in the client’s account at the moment. At this point in our society, we are trading virtually useless pieces of paper for goods and services. The only reason these pieces of paper have value is because we want it to, we believe it has wealth.

P7. Growing up, I never understood money. However, after my new education on the topic, I recognize that the fictional value we place on money is a necessity. Without money, contrary to popular belief, the world would be chaos. What is the incentive provide services or create and trade goods? We would not have teachers, doctors, lawyers, or even public officials. The blind faith that we hold in our currency, although dangerous, is currently essential.

Works Cited

The Planet Money Team. “The Invention of Money.” Audio blog post. This American Life, 7          Jan. 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Forms of currency come in all different shapes and sizes.  No matter what country it is from or where you got it one thing money has in common is that it is an illusion.  Money is used to buy, trade or even rent all types of different goods.  As I got older I started to question the actual value of money.  In my opinion American currency makes more sense than the bitcoin which is used by the Island of Yap.  Money is a man made fallacy but it is important because it allows us to obtain things others do not.  As malicious as this sounds it is true. You either have it or you don’t but I’ve never spent a dollar that I did not want back.  It gives worth to just about everything and anything.

When comparing the gigantic boulders to a dollar bill at first this assignment did not make much sense to me.  This enormous piece of limestone is actually worth something?  Not only that but how civilized are these people compared to us.  The more I read and researched I started to realize they are so different but they have the same primary function.  Yes, bitcoins can not be carried around in a wallet like a bill or in your pocket like change.  From my knowledge the people from the Island of Yap did not wheel barrow their boulders around and chip pieces off of it to negotiate for goods but that is what made sense to them.  Trading a house for the boulder made complete sense to them.  They gave these boulders value just as Brazil did with their form of made up money.

America replicated Brazil and made a new form of currency.  America did this using Brazil as it’s prime example.  A country that once was looked at as one of the most stable economies.  America fell victim to the idea and before you knew it Gold was a thing of the past.  Yes, Gold is still worth money but no one is walking into the grocery store with Gold bricks exchanging for their groceries.  The need to go mining for Gold or Limestone was a thing of the past.  People began to move away from Gold and started adding more focus towards the much more easily acquired dollar bills.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a much more different time and culture but bitcoins do not make as much sense to me as the dollar bill.  Maybe to the people of Yap the idea of knowing you have money when you need it made sense to them but I would not be able to go out with my friends or on vacation knowing my money is sitting outside of my house and able to be stolen at any minute.  That to me is the same as leaving your wallet at home with your doors unlocked in a bad neighborhood.  Maybe the people of Yap had more respect for each other than we do as Americans but I can not go anywhere without knowing I have money on me.

Money is an illusion.  We gave money its value just as we made the dollar the new Gold.  It is in a better sense a figment of our imaginations.  Money made trading for goods easier.  Instead of having to barter an item you maybe did not want too for something you needed money gave you the opportunity to exchange without having to do that.  Money is important because people want they don’t have.  Some blame the bible but I just believe when people don’t have something or are told they can’t the greed and jealousy begins to eat away and people begin to find ways  to obtain it.  Money in any culture is the reason for violence and evil.

Works Cited

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

Renaut, Anne . “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo.com. 13 Apr. 2013. 30 Jan. 2015. <https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html&gt;.

“The Invention of Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life,                     WBEZ. Chicago. 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Novus, Stella. “The Megalithic Money of Yap.” Ancient Origins. Ancient Origins, 04 Jan.                   2013. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.