How is it that we kneel upon such a small piece of detailed paper ? A paper that we are told when growing up is very much needed to basically live on this earth. It’s portrayed to us as our survival guide. We need it for food, clothing, and a home with much more important necessity’s. But is this piece of paper really what we portray it to be? A blank piece of paper is the same as a paper with writing and symbols on it. We are just told that the one with the symbols is the one with most value. Back then Islanders used Fei large solid stone wheels, twelve feet high made of limestone, weighing more than a car.(Stated in NPR broadcast, the invention of money) Fei was used to show who in the island of Yap had the largest stone was the wealthiest. The islanders of Yap traveled a distance of two hundred fifty miles just to pick up the stones that they set to get made in order to signify the wealth of people. The stone was never moved from its place it stayed where ever they were told to be located. Hard to move the Fei around, people would know who’s Fei is was who’s. Back then an Islander sent his workers to go make a Fei for him that would show his great wealth; as the workers were coming back with the Fei on their ship a big storm had approached in which they said the rock limestone rock was thrown off the ship into the bottom of the sea. Everyone in the village believed the Islanders that survived the storm, of home gigantic this stone was and that’s why it did not make its way through the storm. Of course the people of yap believed them. They had now one of the most richest man on the land of Yap. Even though no one saw the limestone everyone seemed to believe that it was true.

How is it that is was so easy for people to actually believe that, that was actually true? Yet, we also are told to believe that a pound of fudge on the board walk in Wildwood all summer is worth a twenty dollars. Is it really even worth that much or it is just a set value that we already know is told to us to be that amount. I could tell you in the winter that a pound of fudge is actually ten dollars and you would believe me. But how is it that we portray things in a certain way? We think and believe that on thing is worth it’s value that I am selling it for. When i know that a pound of fudge cost me only one dollar to make. We get told all the time that one dollar bill is worth the least in bills, but what if we got told that the lowest currency we know of is the most. We would so be following the trend. Just as before we used to have gold as our currency we were taught to believe that that is our most valuable currency.

In Brazil the economy was dealing with inflation. Which was a sustained increase on the price levels of goods for a certain level of time. In the NPR broadcast ” the lie that saved brazil”, state and have no meaning. People started to hide their goods such as cattle because they knew that they value would have been to low to sell and make no profit out of it. Until four friends wanted to stop in inflation that was occuring in Brazil. They suggested to make something called URVs (unit of real value) equal to 7 cruzeros. As weeks pass the value of cruzeros goes up in value.

As in a Bitcoin its all fictional. It’s told to be given a value of whatever the person who’s purchasing it gives it it’s value. Plus to have someone hack and steal your Bitcoin it wouldn’t be so great. It would be hard to even find who the hacker was and to me basically a waste of time and lost of money. Like Reeves stated (Still, even this is far from a guarantee that bitcoin will be any part of the future global economy.) It won’t get far from what we are being told.

Just to know that money is all just ‘fiction” that just because we are told that our money gets deposited every day by a boss into our account like they stated in NPR (the invention of money), we seem to believe because on en electronical screen or paper statement that we have a high amount of currency in our hands due to some numbers that were changed by technology for us to see that, that is the amount that we currently portray to have. But when all honest how do we know if that money is really there just like the rock that supposably sunk into the middle of the ocean? Should we always believe what we are told? Is it so called a good idea what America is doing? Making things electronic (Credit/debit cards, apple pay, etc…)because the value to make more cash would be more just as in Brazil that struggled economically.

Work Cited

“The Invention of Money | This American Life.” This American Life. N.p., 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 6 Sept. 2015

Freidman, 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.

Reeves, Jeff. “Bitcoin has no place in your—or any—portfolio.” Market Watch. N.p., 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Sept. 2015.