Revolution or Evolution?

Money is the root of all evil. It’s an inescapable fact. Sure, you can tell people all you want about the many rich people uncorrupted by all their money and power, but they will still believe that it is the root of all evil. As long as people believe that money is evil, it will remain evil. So why do we use money?

Let’s forget about the whole evil thing and just focus on that. Why do we use money? Money is a representation of the amount of gold we own that is locked up somewhere. We trade millions of pieces of paper and metal each day while our share of gold collects dust. But, if our money represents gold, then what makes gold so valuable that it’s the only metal worth trading? If you find something more rare than gold or more valuable, society tells you to either put it up somewhere or sell it for money, essentially gold. So, why would you trade something more valuable than gold, for more gold? Why can’t we use this to trade with other people, like we do with our gold? Better yet, why can’t we have the government print a certain type of money specifically for this new mineral and place it into the safe house we’ve locked up our gold in? I don’t think anyone would mind spending platinum dollars. And if we could do this with the higher minerals, why not the lower minerals? This way, we could eliminate the coins, stick with paper and just have differently colored paper represent what mineral you have.

This seems rather complicated, actually, and would leave a lot of colors to remember. But it does ask a good question. Why are we only trading gold when there are items of less, equal, and more value that we could trade for better stuff or more equal exchange? While we are trading gold only, all markets are concerned with two things, supply and demand. How many they have, and how much people want it. If we introduced more items to give for this product, a third word would be added to this list: want.

Let’s say we began to use the barter system. We can trade whatever we want for whatever we want. It’d actually make things quite simple. You want that apple. Well, the person selling the apple wants a fork. You happen to have an extra fork, and they obviously have an extra apple, since they are selling it. You each trade your extra, useless item. You have the apple you wanted, he has the fork that he wanted. You both are happy. Selling would then rely on three things: supply, demand, want. What do we have to give, how badly do they want it, what can we get in return? Let’s go on a larger scale. You want that computer. Well, the guy building it put a lot of hard work into that computer, and he isn’t just going to give it to you for a measly fork or apple. He also needs to trade for stuff he can give other people so he can get more parts for more computers. The people he gets his parts from, just want food. Any kind, it doesn’t really matter to them. So he adds 20 pounds of food to his price. The rest is negotiable. You try to buy the computer. He tells you he needs 20 pounds of food plus whatever else you can give him that he might want. You list off all of the items you’d be willing to give him for the computer. He thinks that stereo system you listed sounds pretty good. So, you come back the next day with a stereo system and 20 pounds of food. You got a computer, he has a stereo, and he can trade the 20 pounds of food for more parts to make another computer, which might get him some better stuff.

If we compared this to our current money system, someone would think that a computer would be worth a stereo and 20 pounds of food. Depending on the stereo and quality of food, the guy selling could have been ripped off or gotten a great deal. But it was supply, demand, and want. He supplied a computer, you demanded a computer, he wanted food and a stereo. All requirements were met, everyone is happy. Now, he can even trade his new stereo for something better, if the other guys wants are low enough. Price only depends on what the seller wants. If he doesn’t want much, you might as well be stealing. If he wants too much, no one is really going to trade with him.

So what we have here, is an easier way to trade. There is no middle man controlling value, everyone gets what they want, and there are no taxes because the government would have all the gold they want for trading with other countries.

The moral of this story? Let’s deal with each other, cut out the middle man, and let the government play with their pretty blocks.