Why Money Is The Greatest Invention Of All Time
I am not only claiming that money is the greatest invention of all time, I am going so far as to say that if money had not been invented then it would be impossible for you to be enjoying the standard of living that you enjoy today.
What is money? Is it the coins and notes of your currency? Is it your credit card? Is it the check that you write to pay you bills? No, it's none of these things. Each of those items is only a representation of money.
Money is an abstract concept. It is an agreement between people. There is no actual money. It is an idea and it only exists while we agree that it exists. We agree that certain items, such as a dollar bill, represent certain amounts of money. We agree that certain physical objects, such as your house, have a certain monetary value. The whole thing is a brilliant exercise in human imagination.
If you think that there is a true, intrinsic value to money and that it is not just an exercise in imagination then think about this little hypothetical scenario.
I find myself stranded, with Bill Gates, on a little island in the middle of the ocean. There is no food. We have been there quite some time and are starving to death. As luck would have it I have managed to get Bill tied up and I'm lowering him into the cooking pot in preparation for a long overdue dinner. But Bill remembers that he has with him a blank check and a pen. How much money do you think Bill has to give me in order to buy his freedom?
With the shadow of certain death from starvation looming overhead, and no rescue in sight, the only currency acceptable on this island is food, and unfortunately for Bill, at this point in time he falls into the food category. All the money in the world has no value on this island because all the population of this island, except Bill, no longer agrees to the concept of money.
Now that we agree on the abstract nature of money let's look at why it is such a great invention.
Prior to the invention of money the human race had not progressed past the Stone Age. This is confirmed by the study of history, archeology and of the people that exist today in societies that have never invented money.
Having money allows for the division of labor and the division of labor allows for increasing specialization of skills. Specialization of skills leads to more sophistication of tools and eventually to the invention of totally new processes and products. This in turn leads to enhancement of lifestyle.
There is a second, and equally important, effect of money. Once you start a system of exchanging goods and services for money then an automatic consequence is that a person who is more skilled or more organized at operating within this system, has the potential to acquire more money than those who have less skill at operating within this system.
The important thing about being able to acquire more money, and therefore a better lifestyle, is that it provides incentive to achieve more. The way you achieve more is to provide consumers with more of what they want or better quality, or to solve a problem that consumers want solved and then sell the solution.
The reason that we have the magnificent things that we have today is that they either solved a problem we had (sometime a problem we didn't even know we had) or they provided a better or more attractive solution than an earlier solution provided.
Without money these solutions would not have been discovered and would not have been distributed. It is the opportunity to become rich that has led to the production and distribution of all the inventions that have become a part of our daily lives.
So to sum up; money allows for the distribution of labor, and the possibility to enhance your life by getting rich provides the incentive to capitalize on that distribution of labor by producing and distributing the inventions that provide us with a standard of living far above our predecessors.
Money truly is the greatest invention of the human race.
James Delrojo would like to help you by giving you his
ebook "Unleash the Success Power of Your Mind"
(valued at $27) completely FREE.
Go to http://www.YourSuccessMind.com
What is money? Is it the coins and notes of your currency? Is it your credit card? Is it the check that you write to pay you bills? No, it's none of these things. Each of those items is only a representation of money.
Money is an abstract concept. It is an agreement between people. There is no actual money. It is an idea and it only exists while we agree that it exists. We agree that certain items, such as a dollar bill, represent certain amounts of money. We agree that certain physical objects, such as your house, have a certain monetary value. The whole thing is a brilliant exercise in human imagination.
If you think that there is a true, intrinsic value to money and that it is not just an exercise in imagination then think about this little hypothetical scenario.
I find myself stranded, with Bill Gates, on a little island in the middle of the ocean. There is no food. We have been there quite some time and are starving to death. As luck would have it I have managed to get Bill tied up and I'm lowering him into the cooking pot in preparation for a long overdue dinner. But Bill remembers that he has with him a blank check and a pen. How much money do you think Bill has to give me in order to buy his freedom?
With the shadow of certain death from starvation looming overhead, and no rescue in sight, the only currency acceptable on this island is food, and unfortunately for Bill, at this point in time he falls into the food category. All the money in the world has no value on this island because all the population of this island, except Bill, no longer agrees to the concept of money.
Now that we agree on the abstract nature of money let's look at why it is such a great invention.
Prior to the invention of money the human race had not progressed past the Stone Age. This is confirmed by the study of history, archeology and of the people that exist today in societies that have never invented money.
Having money allows for the division of labor and the division of labor allows for increasing specialization of skills. Specialization of skills leads to more sophistication of tools and eventually to the invention of totally new processes and products. This in turn leads to enhancement of lifestyle.
There is a second, and equally important, effect of money. Once you start a system of exchanging goods and services for money then an automatic consequence is that a person who is more skilled or more organized at operating within this system, has the potential to acquire more money than those who have less skill at operating within this system.
The important thing about being able to acquire more money, and therefore a better lifestyle, is that it provides incentive to achieve more. The way you achieve more is to provide consumers with more of what they want or better quality, or to solve a problem that consumers want solved and then sell the solution.
The reason that we have the magnificent things that we have today is that they either solved a problem we had (sometime a problem we didn't even know we had) or they provided a better or more attractive solution than an earlier solution provided.
Without money these solutions would not have been discovered and would not have been distributed. It is the opportunity to become rich that has led to the production and distribution of all the inventions that have become a part of our daily lives.
So to sum up; money allows for the distribution of labor, and the possibility to enhance your life by getting rich provides the incentive to capitalize on that distribution of labor by producing and distributing the inventions that provide us with a standard of living far above our predecessors.
Money truly is the greatest invention of the human race.
James Delrojo would like to help you by giving you his
ebook "Unleash the Success Power of Your Mind"
(valued at $27) completely FREE.
Go to http://www.YourSuccessMind.com
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Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_130479_63.html
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_130479_63.html
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