The truth about money

As of right now this very essay is written while I walk around my dorm’s small kitchen table, the distance I walk is tracked by a pedometer watch so that I feel that I’ve been productive for the day. It’s the very height of productivity  perpetuated through money. Without money I wouldn’t have this constant need to be productive, I wouldn’t feel guilty for not doing anything for the day. I wouldn’t have this pedometer watch that subconsciously encourages me to walk great distances.For not earning money. I’d just live. There is also the added question of whether or not my walking around my kitchen table while reading these articles and writing this essay influenced my perspective in any way. 

It’s scary to know that your life is in the hands of people who have no idea you exist. Money relies on trust as evidenced by the people of Yap and is reinforced with the people of Brazil. The rich people from Yap’s money is derived from large stones mined from another country. This stone was so large that it couldn’t be moved without significant physical force. Though as the paper by Milton Freedman suggests, how is that any different from our current monetary system? It’s not. Money is an idea and the only reason that it has any value is because it’s an idea everyone believes in.

Before my introduction to the island of Yap and the deeper conversation surrounding money, I never truly stopped to realize just how silly money as a concept is. This was further evidenced by the near economic catastrophe in Brazil stopped through the use of a completely new monetary system. Their country was effectively saved by their citizens trusting the words of a few economists. 

The idea that a single system can be used to give meaning to certain aspects of the greater human experience such as spoken word concerts or even things that sustain the soul like a iced coffee from a small local shop is frankly strange. If the adage from the song “Six n the Mornin” by Ice T is true, “ life has no meaning and money is king,”then truly what is money?

Money is the best example of humanity that can be expressed. Money at its core is a collective belief in something, in a system designed to attribute meaning to human creations. An idea to attribute meaning to other ideas.It’s the ultimate way to give our lives meaning, to work towards a dream. Or more accurately a mass delusion that makes the world go around. Mass amounts of money cause the brain to release chemicals that cause emotions such as happiness. It’s a way to cause an addiction to the human experience. A way to stop people from realizing how mortal they truly are, after all a person can’t think about their heartbeat if they can’t hear it due to the headphones in their ears purchased with Apple Pay. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen, it’s up to the individual to decide how much they need to rely on an idea that forces its way into our reality. Of course everyone needs to make a living wage but beyond that and that’s where money can become dubious. 

This perspective formed by walking around my kitchen table listening to those three podcasts and short article. And thinking further about the implication of the notion that money is just an idea. If an idea then what is its basis, what proves it’s true. And in this case we make it true. People make it true. Because we trusted that it was true.

Money even exists in our fantasies. As evident by digital currency in video games. The predatory nature of video game currency which at its base elements is a system designed to make a person play their game for longer by establishing systems built to make life idealized. Depending on the systems proposed by a Unity article written by Fernanda Gonzalez either “soft money” or “hard money” where soft money relies on a persons need to come back to a game in order to get a specific reward, for example in animal crossing every Sunday there is a special character that comes to your village to sell Turnips. These turnips can be sold anytime throughout the week and the selling price of these turnips often varies. Thus if done correctly you could earn far more than you originally had without spending any real life money. It incentivises the player to come back every Sunday and to check back every day of the week to see if the prices changed at all. While hard money actually does require the player to spend money. This might resemble gambling where the first few tries of a slot machine are free though the next few asks for some real world currency. And if I think about it gambling is a lot like investing in digital currencies. 

The rise of digital currencies such as bitcoin caused a sort of new form of money. Though this new system isn’t too different from systems invented by the people of Yap and Brazil though this system lack the initial foundation of trust as the other systems previously established. A quote from the article “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin” Anne Renault states that bitcoin is rocky due to not being fully backed by another currency. This then causes the value of bitcoin to wildly fluctuate. This coupled with the fact that one can acquire bitcoin without really spending any physical money gives rise to the comparison of soft money in video games. Which is frankly a bit concerning given the goal of in game currency is to enhance game engagement. But investing one’s life savings into bitcoin has a far greater downside. 

This week I learned that life may be one big game with the accidental conclusion reached from the three paragraphs above this one. But jokes aside these articles have allowed me to critically analyze the source of money and to attempt to break it down into a fist draft. 

References 

“The Bubble Bursts on E-Currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2024. 

Friedman, Milton. The Island of Sone Money, Feb. 1991, counterintuitive2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stonemoneyessay.pdf. 

“The Invention of Money.” This American Life, 19 Feb. 2018, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money. 

Technologies, Unity. “Building an In-Game Economy: Unity Gaming Services.” Unity, unity.com/how-to/building-in-game-economy-guide-part-2. Accessed 4 Feb. 2024.