I have always wondered and thought about the concept of money. I’ve been in aww at to how we as people can let a piece of paper run our lives. Money is something that was just made up, it isn’t real and has no value at all. The money we have today only has a value of whatever we give it. Now a days our money isn’t back by any metals such as gold or silver. Theres noting backing it up, its just fiction.
While listening to and reading about the yap I couldn’t stop thinking about how absurd it the story sounded. I couldn’t understand how someone could be wealthy without even having possession of their wealth. I found it amazing how the people were able to just say that the stone was theirs and others would recognize and even respect that claim. All the Germans had to do was mark the fei with a black x and that automatically meant that it was owned by the government and when they wiped away the x the ownership went back to its original owner.
The situation between the US and France is also similar. The French never actually had possession of their gold but yet it was still theirs. This is like how our money system works today. In todays society we never actually physically possess our money. We get paid and put it in the bank and the bank says that we have an amount of money but we never actually get that money. Money just circulates from owner to owner never actually being touched. We really do have almost the same concept as the yap did.
Work cited:
Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.
Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil>.
Joffe-Walt, Chana. “The Invention of Money.” Thisamericanlife.org. N.p., n.d. Web
“Yapping About Money: The Stone Money of Yap.” Economist’s View. 15 Sept. 2005. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
feedback was requested
Feedback provided. —DSH
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OK, Hashmeesh, let’s rock.
I’m going to break with my own tradition and begin with global comments (overall essay) first, then offer some local (paragraph and sentence level) feedback. My hope is that while revising to respond to the global critique you’ll make enough changes so that the smaller local blemishes will disappear. Once the post shapes up, we can concentrate on minor copy-editing matters of grammar and punctuation.
Global Comments:
This needs a lot of work, Hashmeesh. It misuses the format of a Works Cited to claim that four works have been cited, when in fact everything in the essay could have been earned from just one source.
It spends about half of its words expressing your musings about money’s abstractness but without making any clear or significant claims to support your conjecture. It also makes the assumption that your readers are already familiar with the Germans, the Yap, the fei, and the French gold in a US repository.
I acknowledge that the assignment didn’t specifically instruct you to provide the needed background to your readers, so I don’t blame you for that assumption. However, now that you’ve practiced on your first draft, this is the time to incorporate the subject matter into your analysis.
While you’re working on that, be sure your own claims are precise and clear. “Money is something that was just made up, it isn’t real and has no value at all.” Those statements are perfectly acceptable in casual conversation with people who don’t need to be persuaded, but as argument claims, they don’t suffice. Money evolved over time, is very real, and has significant value. What you’re probably talking about is currency, the folding bills and minted coins. Those coins have value if the metal has value, but they are more valuable as coins than melted down. The paper bills are worth far more as bills than they would be a strips of linen. Why? Because they’re Money! In other words, to say money isn’t real and has no value is just too simple. 99 cents is worth a bag of chips, and you wouldn’t tell me that has no value. On the other hand, on Yap, my 99 cents truly has no value. Why? Because there, it’s not money! I hope this makes my point.
You’re exactly right that we don’t usually physically possess our money, but this has been true for more than 100 years, since banking became common, so that’s not much of a revelation. What IS surprising is that we rarely spend a minute thinking about the abstract nature of money until someone points it out to us.
If you think we “have almost the same concept as the Yap,” ask yourself how the Yap would accomplish bank fraud. Someone posing as you can withdraw all the money from your accounts without physically entering a bank, leaving you broke. How would that happen on Yap?
Local Comments:
You cannot pass this class with a portfolio containing pervasive grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, Hasmeesh. Most likely you’re just being careless on this seemingly insignificant early assignment, but I can’t be certain, so I’ll say this now. Give your work a very thorough edit before you post. Get someone else to proofread if you’re in doubt. The last sentence of your introduction contains 8 words and 4 errors. That will never do.
Grade Code 6Y0
Critique the critique: If you appreciate receiving feedback, Hashmeesh, please reply to indicate whether you found the critique helpful or not, and if so, how it was helpful. Of course, if it wasn’t helpful, you should also explain why. Thanks!
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