Money

   I like having money (but don’t have much). It’s nice to be able to buy things with money that I have earned. But I think it’s weird how we rarely see the money that we make these days. So what’s up with money?

  

 The idea of money is pretty simple. You give someone currency that you have, they take it and give you what you want in exchange for it. It’s also fairly easy to understand the relative value of the money we have. We know that a dollar can’t buy anything. Twelve bucks can get you a decent meal. And anywhere from forty to seventy dollars fills up your car with gas. But, what I wonder is, what does that money mean?

  The cash money in your hand used to be worth a set amount of precious metal (i.e. gold). This is called the Gold Standard. That basically means that if you have cash in your hand, it can be traded in for a set amount of gold. But, it is no longer in use today. Our current system is called flat money. Flat money means that goods are allowed to fluctuate in price depending on what the market demands. So now, instead of our cash actually being worth something physical, we as a society have determined that it is has value based on the market in order to trade for goods and services. Basically, our money has value because the market determines that there is a demand for it.

  

 Leaving the gold standard and allowing money to be worth something simply because we say it does wasn’t enough. We now have electronic banking, credit cards, transfers, money wiring, etc. Every two weeks, I get paid for working. I have my money directly deposited into my bank account. I check online to make sure I got it all. Its there- “hooray!” Then I go out to eat and pay with my credit card.    Later in the month I get a statement from the credit card company, telling me that I owe them money. So I jump online and directly transfer funds from my bank account to the credit card company. During this entire process, I have not seen a shred of paper money. I have been paid for my services, postponed payment on goods for myself, and then paid my bills, all with seemingly imaginary money.

   I just think it’s weird that we buy things with something that we can’t see and to me, seems to have no apparent value. Of course, I’ll still use money, and I’m not necessarily against the way it is now. It’s just an interesting concept to think about.