Where does money come from?
August 15th, 2008Up to even 100 years ago a large fraction of people in the world lived without using money! Most people managed on subsistence farming and barter. Or they were peasants or serfs or share croppers. They were fed, clothed and housed by their masters; not paid a wage. Occasional small quantities of money sometimes changed hands but people’s lives did not depend on it.
Our lives do depend on it. Excepting a very few extreme outdoorsmen or women we all need money to live.
That we need the material things - water, food and shelter - is understandable. But money is not an ordinary material thing! Proof: A monied (wealthy) person need possess no specie at all in his pockets nor need he have it in a vault. His ‘money’ is entirely a matter of figures in a ledger. The material thing called specie - dollar bills, euros, pound notes, yen etc. - is not the same as money. It is only one form of it; used when relatively small quantities are involved. There is no vault in the bank holding your bank account money in specie. Only the poor have their wealth in specie!