In order to
build anything, we have to have a steady supply of food, sleep and sex. If we
are going to attempt to act contrary to our animal instincts, and act according
to subjective ideas like Culture with shared skills. We need a steady supply of
food, water, shelter, (a safe place to sleep) and sex.
What’s the rule of the game? “Thou
shall not steal.’ That’s the rule. Thou shall not steal. Now, this statement has
a direct default, You have the right to possess. That simple.
Now food was found through the idea of
farming, that a man could grow ten times the food he needs with a plan and an
effort. Another man could raise more meat than he could ever eat with a plan
and some effort, and so we have the ranch. Yet another man can raise enough
flax to clothes himself ten times over. These same men might be drawn together
through a common source of water and agree to trade amongst themselves, cloth,
for flour, flour for meat, meat for cloth, and so on. So each man can
specialize, allowing others to provide certain needs, and together they live
better lives than they would each one on his own. They also come to realize
that two men can grow ten times what they need, which doubles the surplus, by
adding only one man. Then comes the idea of family, with a woman, you can build
a work force, and with a work force, you can build wealth.
These same men might find it
necessary to come together as a fighting force in order to protect what they
have from others, for the law within a culture, extend only to that culture. So
other cultures might find their source of food, sleep and sex by looting what
you have built, it calls for less discipline and effort on their part. Now keep
in mind that on both sides of this equation are men willing to fight and die
for food, sleep and sex. Again, these are the motivators.
So now we have a culture that’s
growing, with many people working at different things, producing wealth, and
are now in need of a common tool to help move trading along, into the picture
comes the subjective idea of money. You can sell your goods for money, and with
that money you can go and buy those things you need that someone else
produce’s. It’s a tool to ease trading, a marker, that’s all it is. Now gold
has been the standard for money a long time because it is beautiful, resilient
and stable, but it’s only value, is the value a man puts on it. If a man does a
days work for a piece of gold, than that piece of gold it worth a day work,
that simple. What will a day’s work buy? Whatever that piece of gold will buy.
So we have to be careful in how we
look at money. Money is the grease of trade, but a day’s work gives it value.
For instance, I give you a twenty dollar bill and you go and buy a
twenty dollar watch. What’s the value of the watch to you? Zero. Are you going
to worry about a thief, are you going to keep it clean and in repair, or even
feel like you own it? Why (outside of emotional ties)? Because you have no
investment, one minute you don’t have a watch, the next you do. It’s no
different than had I given you the watch instead of the twenty dollars. Neither
has value. But if you go out and work all day to earn that twenty dollars, and you go and buy a twenty dollar watch, you
now have a watch worth a day’s wages. You’ll take care of it, protect it from
thieves; repair it, for it now represents a day’s work, a day in your life, and
what’s life made of? Time.
So money represents the work you do,
or the time you put into something, and it is a convenience way of storing work already done for future
use. The better you are at what you do,
the more your money is worth; therefore the money is only worth as much as the
culture puts into it. Money = Time. You
are your money.
Money is also a powerful tool to try
new things, to fuel common projects, to provide for the common defense, to go
different places, to see new sights. So you must work money into your
philosophy, but keep it in perspective, it is a tool, the work has to be done,
or the money has no value. If we slip up and end up believing money will
provide, then it doesn’t. Why? Because it isn’t true, you can’t eat gold.
Wealth is not built on money, it’s built on work. Regardless of the subjective nature
of this discussion, work is real, work is what moves stones, plows fields,
herds and keeps track of animals, builds shelters, so on and so forth. So even
though money is a subjective idea, it has to be rooted in what is real, what is
true or it collapses.
When the government prints money, and
the work has not been done, then the money loses value. Why, because there is
no wealth to back it up, the time wasn’t put it. When I was a kid, I could go
to Nancy
Now there is an inherent danger here,
if you can buy food, sleep and sex with money, you might lose sight of how and
why it came about and end up believing in money instead of depending on
philosophy. If this be the case, and it evolves into the rule and everybody is
in pursuit of money, than who’s building the wealth? Keep in mind, money is not
wealth, money is simply a tool, wealth is the grain, the ability to ground it
into flour, meat, fish, cloth, wood, leather, so no and so forth. So if there
is nothing to buy, if no one wants it, than money ceases to have value. You
can’t eat gold.
George
Henry Nichols
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