The concept of money is understood by all people. It has the utmost importance and serves as the foundation for practically all significant decisions made worldwide. While if you are able, you use the money to purchase the things you want. Similarly, just possessing money gives you a great sense of peace of mind. With the ultimate goal of earning more money, people spend their entire lives mastering their jobs or advancing in their education. People depend on money to continue with their daily lives, therefore losing it would be very stressful. Money is a powerful concept that we either think about constantly or never think about at all since we are so used to spending it.

Do you think anyone has ever questioned why we use money? For some people, spending money genuinely is a way of life. Or do we simply all engage in it and regard it as normal since that is how we have always lived? After listening to a podcast and reading two fantastic essays about money, its history, and its value, I became interested in money conspiracies and what other people think and believe about this topic.

The Island of Yap’s story shocks many as too far-fetched, distant, and foreign to comprehend the notion that society might accept wealth through stones they have never seen. However, if we look into the mirror, we may see the reality we are currently living in is the same. The use of cash as a form of payment is declining, according to economists. The money we claim to have earned is never actually seen or handled by us because we receive our salary by direct deposit. We are continuously spending, earning, and borrowing money, yet we have no understanding of what happens to it.

The money is deposited into our accounts and sent to another location when we put in the time and decide it is worth this amount. The cash you earn and deposit into the bank isn’t actually yours, yet. No cash is put into or taken out of a box connected to your bank account when you make a deposit or purchase. Even though money may not physically exist, it is crucial to the world’s ability to succeed. The 2008 financial crisis had a significant impact on the country, and its aftereffects may still be felt in the current economy and social structure. 

My perspective on money has clearly changed as a result of the podcast I recently listened to. You would think that money cannot lose its value, therefore how did its value decline when the real estate market crashed? Money has led us to assume that it is all a big scam. When it was ruled that dollars could only be used as a concept of money and couldn’t be traded for gold, the practice of exchanging paper for gold was reversed.

In the story of the creation of money, it is explained that even when you pay a bill online, only information is sent; no funds are really sent from the bank to cover your phone bill. Money is an illusion. When I think about it, it just makes so much sense. The residents of Yap Island think that money isn’t all that different from the wealthy stones at the bottom of the ocean. It is somewhat worrisome how readily people accept ideas just because the government says so.

“The Invention of Stone Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago. 7 Jan. 2011.

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991. 1991 Island Stone Money (hoover.org)

Renaut, A. (2013, April 13). The bubble bursts on e-currency bitcoin. Yahoo! News. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bubble-bursts-e-currency-bitcoin-064913387–finance.html