More About Money

If I'm consistent in anything, it's in my inconsistency. I start and stop many many things, but always with the attitude that you have to start moving to at least find out whether you're moving in the right direction. If you aren't, then stop and figure out which direction you should be moving in and go that way. But the key is to move, just move. If you aren't moving, you aren't going anywhere and that means that you're directionless. You're afraid to move because you don't want to make a mistake or you don't have a goal. This whole society is directionless and has been for a long time. Maybe with Obama it will begin moving in a more positive and satisfying manner again, one with direction and purpose. At least, his administration is showing signs of trying to get some movement initiated.

Yet, there is the Rock of Gibraltar called finances that has to be made to move. Finances: a concept developed to describe the management of money--another concept in itself. Finance and money management. Strange, using one concept to describe and manage another. It's very much like using this illusion to describe and manage that one. As far back as I can recall this kind of thing has been called magic or illusion.

The fact is money is only an illusion. It's power comes from its believability. People accept it as something real and valuable: the illusion. But money in itself is only metal or paper with designs impressed or printed on each piece. Numbers meant to assign some value to the various pieces of money are mixed with the designs and the human mind accepts the numbers as something real and tangible that can be used in trade for other real and tangible goods. The numbers represent some imagined value placed on whatever is exchanging hands. Store those numbers in some manner in a bank, for instance, and one seems to be acquiring more value or enrichment. The more one numbers one has and can exchange for the goods, products, or services desired, the more affluent--richer--one is thought to be. All of this is illusion, imagination in action. Seeing money in this light simply reinforces to me that is simply a tool.

I repeat, money is simply a tool. Just as a wrench is a tool. Or just as a vehicle is a tool, though a big complicated one, money is simply a tool. The same as with a gun, a knife, a hammer, or anything that man uses to maintain itself is a tool, though a pretty sophisticated one. All machines in the strictest sense are tools. And money, though not a machine, is a tool of such sophistication that fewer than two percent of the world's money users have learned how to use it to their benefit. Almost anyone can learn to use a hammer within a very short period, a few days if not within just a few hours. Of all of man's tools, though, money is the most powerful and versatile as well as the most difficult to master.

Take a set of ordinary wrenches. A person who knows how to use them can earn a living making and repairing things with wrenches. Mechanics and plumbers are two good examples. Without wrenches neither can do either repairs or earn money. The reason there are mechanics and plumbers is that people refuse to learn even the basics about their own vehicles or plumbing. When something goes awry with either, almost everyone calls for a mechanic or plumber who puts his or her wrenches to work, then is given compensation in the form of money. He or she is paid with imaginary number values for services rendered. We do this throughout the society, though in many cases the exchange is imaginary value (numbers) for products or goods, tangibles.

Most people can use a wrench well enough to tighten bolts and nuts which I liken to paying one's bills and buying food and other necessities with money. But, using the wrench or any other physical tool for anything more complicated than the most minor of repairs is beyond the ability and skill of the vast majority of the citizenry of this country, even beyond the desire to have the desire to have the ability. All of this is true of money. Most people of this country don't even have the necessary minimal skills to take care of required maintenance--paying bills, rent, house payments, medical costs, and food and clothing costs. And don't even mention balancing a check book. Why? Because few anywhere realize or have been taught competent use of money just as few have been taught competent use of any tools. Nor have we been taught the discipline required to use it properly, again, just as few of us have been taught competent use of tools in general.

A person with a good set of tools, with which he can do and make things for himself--or earn his livelihood, maintains and replaces them as necessary. Because he maintains and replaces them, he can work with them all of his life and they will earn him more income, so much in fact that the amount each costs is negligible compared to the gross earnings it will provide him during its existence and use. A tool user doesn't trade his tools for something providing transient momentary pleasure or satisfaction. He understands that tools have a permanent earning value, that, if he traded for something insignificant, he would lose that earning potential. Yet, we do the very opposite with money everyday and many times throughout the day without ever considering the future earning potential of the money we give up for inconsequential luxuries.

Just as a box full of tools can help one make a living, so can a handful of money. A person can take a few tools and earn enough money to live on and also buy another tool or two now and then. As one adds to his tool collection, he expands the range of work he can do and can thereby increase his income. Also, as one gains experience and repute he will garner more work as well as a higher income. Unfortunately, few enough people learn these principles about money just as they don't learn similar principles about hand tools. Very few people understand that saving is for investing and that budgeting is for being able to have he money necessary to pay for necessities as they occur, including health needs. Of the very few who save, almost none save to use that money for investment and to make their money tools larger and more powerful at some future date. Rather, money is seen as a means to immediate pleasure. Yet who would think of using a crescent or open-end wrench for immediate pleasure? If one earns with his wrenches, he eventually reinvests some of the income in more wrenches that will allow him to do more kinds of work. The more kinds of work he can do, the more he will be in demand, and the more he will be able to charge for his time and services. And every step here deals with the one tool called money.

The illusion of money is so pervasive and so powerful that it corrupts at every level, but especially where it is readily available. Enron and the U.S. government are two of the best examples. It's hard to argue that the illusion doesn't corrupt when one closely examines the federal budget to see where the money goes. The Enron scandal has already been examined in minute detail and the case stands as a prime example of this thesis. If more are needed, it is only necessary to point to the Wall-Street bailout and the consequent misuse of public funds for the enrichment and luxury of the moguls of the industry.

The illusion of money also is the major factor in the distinction among classes in most countries of the planet. The rich are the powerful and the elite. The poor support the rich in the same manner that the base of a pyramid is so much larger than its top--the poor being the base and the very rich being near or at the apex. The very rich are at the top of the apex because of the illusion of ability that their investing and earning acumen has given them some special ability. What it actually has given them is the a much stronger ability to exchange the idea of money and value with others for a higher level of goods, products, and services. Others will work for them for a certain number to be received each week, or some determined period, which is considered compensation for services rendered. This number is then parceled out to others in the worker's supply chain by which he supports and supplies his life with what he considers necessary. All of this is done with the idea of value being exchanged from person to person, in short, the idea of money. And this idea is the power of the tool we call money.

We work and slave and sell our lives second by second for an idea and what its illusion can bring us in good, products, and services. We live in self-imposed slavery because we accept the illusion and the necessity to live under its rules and regimen. Until we break with this illusion, we will continue polluting the Earth and destroying its fauna and flora only because we are pursuing something we can't all attain. It's called wealth--the accumulation of the imaginary numbers which modern societies redefine as money.

Think about it.

Walk in Peace and Love.