Trading Value

The world is ending and life as we know it is completely changing.  It is a post-apocalyptic time and 90 percent of America’s population has disappeared.  I find a 100 dollar bill and I use it to start a fire.  That is the most value that I could ever get out of that bit of currency since it holds no actual value.  It is just as useful to me as a 50, a 20, or even a single.  When it comes down to brass tax, that paper currency is just that, paper.  The only reason we value it so much today is because others value it.  We work for it, keep it safely in our pocket, get angry when its stolen, and feel happy when we receive it.  Money can change lives and all it is is paper.  That is just how it is and how it has always been from the people of the Yap to the people of Brazil.  Money is not what holds value, but it is the way people look at it and believe it to be that holds value.

America started printing paper money because it was backed up by silver and gold.  With that paper money, citizens could redeem gold and silver worth the amount noted on a small piece of parchment.  When the Great Depression hit, the government no longer had the ability to do that, so in 1934 it was made so that paper money was just “lawful money.” The things that people work so hard for are just pieces of paper.  Even worse, most people put their money in the bank directly from work.  PEOPLE NEVER SEE THERE MONEY.  It is simply understood to be there.  My favorite part of it all is that someone can go to redeem all their money from the bank, but when they ask for it, it is not always there.  Yet, purchases can be made with the money that is not actually there using a colored piece of plastic.

Value of money is strange because the government literally just makes it.  Brazil started having problems with their economy because of inflation and therefore just reinvented the system.  Brazil simply stopped accepting the inflated paper money and created new money to fix the economy.  It is completed made and decided by the government.  There is no actual value to decide on.  Think that if just worked like this, anyone could have absurd amounts of money.  However, as soon as money fails,  paper means nothing anymore.  Only actual essentials and material objects will hold meaning.

The shocking thing is, if it was not for people believing money had value due to government standards, we would all have paper and plastic.  Money is supposed to buy you material items and essentials.  These are the actual things with intrinsic value.  It seems kind of strange that someone would trade anything of actual value for abstract value, but then I think about it.  I do this everyday and if someone wanted to give me paper money for something of value I had, I would be all about it.  I would even set an amount of abstract value that I would take for my actual valuable item.  The fact that this system is successful and has been for a long time blows my mind.  I only hope that nothing happens that will end the world and turn all my paper money into fire tinder.

Murray, Teresa D. “Money Matters.” Cleveland.com. Cleveland.com, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 May 2015.

“Current FAQs Informing the Public about the Federal Reserve.” FRB: Is U.S. Currency Still Backed by Gold? Board of Governers of the Federal Reserve System, 2 Aug. 2013. Web. 06 May 2015. <http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12770.htm&gt;.

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.