The Lies Behind The Dollar Sign

I can say with strong conviction that our perception of money is influenced immensely by culture and the natural environment in which we live. Since there are varying societies and places in the world, monetary systems are bound to be different from one another. According to Milton Friedman’s work The Island of Stone Money, he uses the account of William Henry Furness III to describe the Yap people’s subject of payment, which are large stone wheels known as “fei.” Friedman additionally mentions France’s use of gold and the U.S. ‘s use of paper cash for currency, calling to mind the differences between each nation’s monetary system. However, despite the distinctions between these financial structures, they all lead me to the same universal standpoint about money: it is a man-made illusion. Money is not real because it is merely an idea that people throughout history have rethought over-and-over again. It only seems real to us because we use physical objects like stone, gold, and paper to symbolize currency. No ruler or supreme being ever told us that these resources are high in value. Yet, we humans have chosen these things to be our precious goods. That is why wealth is becoming unimportant. If the concept of money is fiction, so is wealth. The more people realize this, the less desire they have for material possession.  

Prior to reading The Island of Stone Money and listening to the NPR broadcast The Invention of Money, I did not think much about the concept of currency. To be frank, I never questioned the idea. I merely perceived money as something priceless, tangible, and as real as the earth we walk on. Now, after analyzing it globally, my attitude toward the subject has changed. Firstly, not only is money an illusion, but it can turn the wealthiest countries in the world into impoverished nations with ease, putting innocent citizens in vulnerable positions like lack of education, food insecurity, and unemployment. Unfortunately, the effects of losing money are painfully real. Take Japan’s economic system, for example. In The New York Times 2013 opinion editorial “Japan’s Latest Economic Transfusion,” Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was relying on his new $16 million stimulus package to boost his economy and position in the upcoming elections, even though it was putting his government more in debt. What troubled me about this so-called stimulus package is that it was a double-edged sword, a financial plan that came with consequences. Indeed, it had the potential to create new jobs for Japanese citizens and expand health care spending. But only for a short period of time, which is not enough time for a country. Not to mention it was beating more money out of the already-bankrupt government. What saddened me the most about Japan’s situation is that they depend immensely on money to be deemed one of the wealthiest countries in the world, even though money is actually a falsehood. So was the stimulus package worth it in the long run? I would have to say no.  

The second observation I made about money after reading and listening to the article and broadcast is that anything can be used as currency. For instance, in the “Prologue” of the NPR broadcast The Invention of Money, Ira Glass and the Planet Money team informed their audience about the Yap people’s use of large stones as payment. Before, I merely imagined money as paper cash because that is my country’s form of currency. I never imagined money in any other form. So the way I physically see money has changed. I can also come to the conclusion that money can easily be converted into something different to fit the financial customs of other societies, places, etc. Since money at its heart is fiction, we can alter it at any point in time. In The Island of Stone Money, Friedman recalled how in 1932-33, the Federal Reserve Bank converted dollars into gold for the Bank of France to quell their fears about the U.S. not following the “gold standard.” After reading this section of the article, I could not help but think that money’s role is more than just paying for necessities. It allows us to communicate with people unlike ourselves and trade services with them. As counterintuitive as it sounds, without money, nations would not survive on the world map, for they would be left on their own. 

Finally, the last observation I made about money after doing my research is that it can create distrust between governments and their citizens. In act one {“The Lie That Saved Brazil”} of the NPR broadcast The Invention of Money, Brazil’s government was unable to persuade people that their money was valuable due to the rapid rise of inflation. When citizens are living in an environment where prices are constantly increasing drastically, and they cannot seem to catch up with the skyrocketing charges, they are bound to question the worth of their money and, eventually, the people regulating their economy. It makes total sense. If I were in their shoes, I would have felt the same way about my money and the economy. Why would I put my faith and trust in an imbalanced monetary system?       

In conclusion, money, no matter how much stress it causes our world, is a necessity. We have depended on it for centuries, and we will continue to depend on it because it is the only thing we know that will keep us from becoming poor. The bottom line is that money comes with consequences that are either good or bad. The more money you have, the better off you will be. The less money you have, you will physically and emotionally suffer. It is a cruel rule we have in our world. However, the positive aspect of it is that we have the power to make changes to that rule. If we can create monetary systems and change them for others, we can change them for ourselves. We just have to think outside the box. 

References

Friedman, M., Leeson, R., & Palm, C. G. {1991}. The island of stone money. Money Mischief, 3-7, https://miltonfriedman.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/215061/full 

{2013}. Japan’s latest economic transfusion. The New York Times. p 22 in print, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/opinion/japans-latest-economic-transfusion.html 

Glass, I., Joffe-Walt, C., Kestenbaum, D., Blumberg, A., Planet Money {2011}. The invention of money. This American Life, NPR, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money