Loading ...a subject people do not understand well enough
MONEY – What is it?
Let’s start with Webster’s definition:
- something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment: such as a officially coined or stamped metal currency
Here is another – Author Unknown:
“Gold is the money of kings,
Silver is the money of gentlemen,
Barter is the money of peasants,
but Debt is the money of slaves.”
The original JP Morgan adds his two cents:
“The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” “Money equals business which equals power, all of which come from character and trust.” “The first thing (in credit) is character… before money or anything else. Dec 19, 2016
[below snipped from Doug Casey]:
Money
If you can’t define a word precisely, clearly and quickly, that’s proof you don’t understand what you’re talking about as well as you might. The proper definition of money is as something that functions as a store of value and a medium of exchange.
Government fiat currencies can, and currently do, function as money. But they are far from ideal. What, then, are the characteristics of a good money?
Aristotle listed them in the 4th century BCE. A good money must be all of the following:
- Durable: A good money shouldn’t fall apart in your pocket nor evaporate when you aren’t looking. It should be indestructible. This is why we don’t use fruit for money. It can rot, be eaten by insects, and so on. It doesn’t last.
- Divisible: A good money needs to be convertible into larger and smaller pieces without losing its value, to fit a transaction of any size. This is why we don’t use things like porcelain for money – half a Ming vase isn’t worth much.
- Consistent: A good money is something that always looks the same, so that it’s easy to recognize, each piece identical to the next. This is why we don’t use things like oil paintings for money; each painting, even by the same artist, of the same size and composed of the same materials is unique. It’s also why we don’t use real estate as money. One piece is always different from another piece.
- Convenient: A good money packs a lot of value into a small package and is highly portable. This is why we don’t use water for money, as essential as it is – just imagine how much you’d have to deliver to pay for a new house, not to mention all the problems you’d have with the escrow. It’s also why we don’t use other metals like lead, or even copper. The coins would have to be too huge to handle easily to be of sufficient value.
- Intrinsically valuable: A good money is something many people want or can use. This is critical to money functioning as a means of exchange; even if I’m not a jeweler, I know that someone, somewhere wants gold and will take it in exchange for something else of value to me. This is why we don’t – or shouldn’t – use things like scraps of paper for money, no matter how impressive the inscriptions upon them might be.
Actually, there’s a sixth reason Aristotle should have mentioned, but it wasn’t relevant in his age, because nobody would have thought of it… It can’t be created out of thin air.
Not even the kings and emperors who clipped and diluted coins would have dared imagine that they could get away with trying to use something essentially worthless as money.
These are the reasons why gold is the best money. It’s not a gold bug religion, nor a barbaric superstition. It’s simply common sense. Gold is particularly good for use as money, just as aluminum is particularly good for making aircraft, steel is good for the structures of buildings, uranium is good for fueling nuclear power plants, and paper is good for making books. Not money. If you try to make airplanes out of lead, or money out of paper, you’re in for a crash.
That gold is money is simply the result of the market process, seeking optimum means of storing value and making exchanges.
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In consideration of all the above – All Ponzi Schemes eventually end – this worldwide Fiat system is no exception –
consider for a moment what would happen if every productive working person woke up one day and decided they would only work if they were paid an hourly wage denominated in Copper; Silver or Gold !