.jpg)
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
Money, everybody needs it. We work for it, we save it, we spend it. There never seems to be enough of it. And for some, it seems to come a lot easier than others.
The bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is nothing more than a store of wealth. It has taken on many forms over the years and around the world. From shells (wampum…how much for Long Island..keep the change), to Gold and silver, and then coins made of these metals. As time went on the actual precious metal content of these coins decreased, replaced by a less valuable substitute. Coins were followed by paper bills that represented actual supplies of gold and silver(demand notes), that you could hypothetically turn in for actual silver or gold.(secreted away in the vaults of Fort Knox)
From demand notes we moved to largely worthless pieces of paper or “fiat money” (I wonder if that means Fiat makes it….no actually its money that is not backed by reserves of another commodity ) that represent value.(what’s know in the let’s pretend world as “legal tender”.)
Of course only the government and the federal reserve can print money (legally, that is). I love that, Abracadabra…wam bam. .this piece of paper and ink is now a hundred dollar bill. What a gimmick, I wish I could get in on that action. Little low on dough, short on the rent, car payment due, or just need more jack, ..no problemo…just crank up the old printing press and let ‘er roll.
I for one, will be glad to see paper money and coins go the way of the dinosaurs. Who wants to carry around soiled pieces of paper that have touched thousands of hands and, who knows what else. Not only that, a penny, a quarter, a dollar, really don’t even buy anything anymore. You gott’a carry around a stack of them just to buy a gallon of gas.
I guess as a form of payment goes, the whole money thing is more efficient than the old barter system. I mean, could you just see the mess at the toll booth on the interstate, with all the guys outside their little booths getting haircuts, shoe shines, backrubs, dental care and who knows what else. (sometimes I think some of that is going on now, when I’m stuck 20 cars back in the toll line)
We then moved into the electronic money era with paper checks. Now, this was about as close as I got to printing my own money. You can write a check, float a check, stop a check, mail a check.(the check is in the mail) The beauty of the thing is, the poor fellow you issued it do, never quite knew if it was good until after the transaction. “How much is that house my man…an entirely fair price…I will just stroke you a check…by the way, how do you spell Million.. Anyway, it was just too much paper to move around, process, and account for.
Most recently there is a trend that even our old faithful paper money and checks are falling into disuse, as the plastic credit card is now widely used. I’ve got the gold card, the silver card, the platinum card, and the black card…but the truth be known, its still just a piece of plastic. Just a quick swipe and you are on your way, what could be easier. (note: women are particularly adept at this swiping maneuver, they seem to do it with such speed and flourish). But its just a little piece of plastic, you say…but that’s ok..as long as we all believe its money.
This ushered in the age of plastic. As good as credit cards are, they say that our plastic will soon be a thing of the past also, as we get a chip embedded under our skin that uses RFID or Radio Frequency Identification Technology to issue our payments as we walk past
scanners in grocery stores. The downside is, there goes your privacy. Big Brother will know every move you make.
The new money will be entirely electronic, and at that point I see us going to “OWC”..or One World Currency. The other by product of the electronic and instantaneous money will be “no Float”. The instant you make a transaction, and your account is accessed….say bye-by…your funds are gone.
So basically what it comes down to is: money is what we all believe money is. (or money is what money does) It represents a store of value, that other members of society acknowledge as a medium of trade. It also represents our knowledge, our labor, and our savings. I’m thinking of starting my own underground economy, if I can just convince everyone else that my collection of baseball cards are money
P.I.B.
Money, everybody needs it. We work for it, we save it, we spend it. There never seems to be enough of it. And for some, it seems to come a lot easier than others.
The bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is nothing more than a store of wealth. It has taken on many forms over the years and around the world. From shells (wampum…how much for Long Island..keep the change), to Gold and silver, and then coins made of these metals. As time went on the actual precious metal content of these coins decreased, replaced by a less valuable substitute. Coins were followed by paper bills that represented actual supplies of gold and silver(demand notes), that you could hypothetically turn in for actual silver or gold.(secreted away in the vaults of Fort Knox)
From demand notes we moved to largely worthless pieces of paper or “fiat money” (I wonder if that means Fiat makes it….no actually its money that is not backed by reserves of another commodity ) that represent value.(what’s know in the let’s pretend world as “legal tender”.)
Of course only the government and the federal reserve can print money (legally, that is). I love that, Abracadabra…wam bam. .this piece of paper and ink is now a hundred dollar bill. What a gimmick, I wish I could get in on that action. Little low on dough, short on the rent, car payment due, or just need more jack, ..no problemo…just crank up the old printing press and let ‘er roll.
I for one, will be glad to see paper money and coins go the way of the dinosaurs. Who wants to carry around soiled pieces of paper that have touched thousands of hands and, who knows what else. Not only that, a penny, a quarter, a dollar, really don’t even buy anything anymore. You gott’a carry around a stack of them just to buy a gallon of gas.
I guess as a form of payment goes, the whole money thing is more efficient than the old barter system. I mean, could you just see the mess at the toll booth on the interstate, with all the guys outside their little booths getting haircuts, shoe shines, backrubs, dental care and who knows what else. (sometimes I think some of that is going on now, when I’m stuck 20 cars back in the toll line)
We then moved into the electronic money era with paper checks. Now, this was about as close as I got to printing my own money. You can write a check, float a check, stop a check, mail a check.(the check is in the mail) The beauty of the thing is, the poor fellow you issued it do, never quite knew if it was good until after the transaction. “How much is that house my man…an entirely fair price…I will just stroke you a check…by the way, how do you spell Million.. Anyway, it was just too much paper to move around, process, and account for.
Most recently there is a trend that even our old faithful paper money and checks are falling into disuse, as the plastic credit card is now widely used. I’ve got the gold card, the silver card, the platinum card, and the black card…but the truth be known, its still just a piece of plastic. Just a quick swipe and you are on your way, what could be easier. (note: women are particularly adept at this swiping maneuver, they seem to do it with such speed and flourish). But its just a little piece of plastic, you say…but that’s ok..as long as we all believe its money.
This ushered in the age of plastic. As good as credit cards are, they say that our plastic will soon be a thing of the past also, as we get a chip embedded under our skin that uses RFID or Radio Frequency Identification Technology to issue our payments as we walk past
scanners in grocery stores. The downside is, there goes your privacy. Big Brother will know every move you make.
The new money will be entirely electronic, and at that point I see us going to “OWC”..or One World Currency. The other by product of the electronic and instantaneous money will be “no Float”. The instant you make a transaction, and your account is accessed….say bye-by…your funds are gone.
So basically what it comes down to is: money is what we all believe money is. (or money is what money does) It represents a store of value, that other members of society acknowledge as a medium of trade. It also represents our knowledge, our labor, and our savings. I’m thinking of starting my own underground economy, if I can just convince everyone else that my collection of baseball cards are money
P.I.B.
1 comment:
Ciao,
you forgot to mention that the one thing money can't buy: poverty.
keep up your little articles, I find them very interesting,
Dad
Post a Comment