Money, Money, Money
Each person regardless of their age, race, sex, or geographical location has a different view on money and the value it holds in their life. While some waste their money away on sports cars or extravagant vacations to support their midlife crises, others save every penny they have in order to provide for themselves and their family. Certain people do not need to worry about how much they make each week or month as they have a surplus of cash to support a lavish lifestyle, meanwhile some live paycheck to paycheck with the bare minimum hoping to keep their lights on. While money is a constant everywhere in the world, it often means different things for different people.
Within the last few years, I have come to the realization that the real world can be expensive. Just because I want the more expensive pair of shoes does not mean they are always the better pair, considering if I buy the cheaper pair and save $100, I can buy groceries for the week. After all, a pair of shoes is a pair of shoes, as long as they protect my feet from the debris of the sidewalk does it really matter what brand they are? Do I need the designer purse worth thousands of dollars when one from the thrift store will still carry my belongings in the same way? It can be very helpful to come to this realization early in life, so one can spend their days preparing for the future and whatever expenses they may encounter. Such expenses could include a home, a car, or even food for themselves to survive. Through discovering a new view of money, I now realize how much it truly takes to be considered “wealthy”, and how well off people in that social categorization are compared to those living paycheck to paycheck to survive. Considering how much a singular dollar means to me now and the realization that brand names do not matter, I hope that I can continue to value each dollar that I have to my name. I must continue to be mindful about spending in order to achieve the future lifestyle I envision for myself and my future family. I must continue to have faith in the things that I cannot control or see, such as the choices which come from the meetings of the Federal Reserve, limiting or granting increased amounts of inflation. I must have faith in this considering it could “make or break” the lives of the American people and their financial well being.
The behaviors which were exhibited by the people of Yap were very trusting, as they believed in the centralized currency which was limestone. While one would have a difficult time stealing a stone which weighs the amount of a car, they may steal it in a figurative sense, by not honoring the claims process which was practiced on the island. While one person may believe the stone was theirs, others may as well, and considering either party may not be able to see the stone, this could lead to conflict and an issue when it comes to the value of the currency. As mentioned in Pod 1, it could be difficult not to count a stone twice, as more than one person may have believed they were the owner. It is extremely interesting to note that the Yap islanders allowed for the currency to have a consistent value, considering in current times Argentina is facing a crisis with a 102.5% increase in inflation (BBC). Although the stones were not used as everyday currency, they were still able to hold their value and not depreciate over time or even be worth more than standard currency, and followed the same inflation and deflation schedule that the rest of the common currency did at the time. The currency system works so well in the Yap culture due to the honesty of all who reside on the island, which speaks as a test to the culture and its people.
By the United States creating a centralized bank known as the Federal Reserve, they granted power to elected officials in charge of such organization to control the economic well being of the country and the American people. As the inflation rates fluctuate depending on the current happenings within the country, it must be noted that the aforementioned reserve has the power to increase or decrease the amount of money that is circulating within the American economy. It is very important to recognize that the economy did not function nor exist as it does today 100 years ago, according to experts at NPR. As mentioned within Pod 3, the Federal Reserve is not associated with the President’s campaign, but rather protects the interest of the American people and economy. Although it is not a federal agency, if the Federal Reserve touched the money of American citizens and reclaimed it as their own, there would be extreme amounts of uproar and distrust throughout the country. It is interesting to note that the German government did that exact act when marking the fei with black paint, and reclaiming them as their own. The demonstration of destroying and reclaiming the money of the Yap islanders was not reasonable, as this affected their economic well being.
Through the study of Stone Money, one is able to conclude that there are various views associated with currency and every economy around the world is not the same. While the American economy does not have stones which weigh several tons contributing to the wealth of civilians similar to Yap, it does share common underlying issues with countries such as Argentina with concepts such as inflation. The concept of money may look different to each individual which possesses it, but the value of currency remains the same.
References
Goldstein, Jacob and David Kestenbaum, directors. NPR, NPR, 10 Dec. 2010, https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money. Accessed 11 Sept. 2023.
Goldstein, Jacob. “The Invention of ‘The Economy.’” NPR, NPR, 28 Feb. 2014, http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/02/28/283477546/the-invention-of-the-economy.
Gozzi, Laura. “Argentina Inflation Soars Past 100% Mark.” BBC News, BBC, 15 Mar. 2023, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64960385.
This American Life, 19 Feb. 2018, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money#play. Accessed 11 Sept. 2023.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Thanks for publishing your Stone Money argument early, Sunflower. I’ll leave feedback for you WELL before the submission deadline for first drafts for your benefit and the benefit of classmates who might want to follow this conversation.
Let’s begin with notes on Argument.
Paragraph 1. You spend a paragraph establishing that money is worth more or less to us as we mature and comparing that with inflation, the condition of money actually being worth more or less despite our attitude toward it. It’s an interesting comparison, but it doesn’t quite hold up, does it?, unless you acknowledge that you’re measuring two different phenomena.
Paragraph 2. Having established three checkpoints in our relationship with money, you spend 1/2 of this paragraph making the point that you have reached the third with a mature perspective. Readers can assume that the rest of your argument will be devoted to how we VALUE money more in our adult phase than in our teen phase.
The second half of the paragraph takes a very different tack. It requires a paragraph of its own. The new argument is that we struggle to accumulate what we need to feel financially stable, and that our ally or our opponent in that struggle is “the Fed.” It’s hard to merge this argument with what we have so far.
Paragraph 3. Again your paragraph contains two main argument components and demands two paragraphs. In the first half, you argue that the Yap trust both in the value of their coins AND in their method of tracking ownership. Then you undercut the veracity of the ownership system. Then you suggest that there might be accounting errors if all the money had to be totaled. The observations all touch on how we track money or how we value money, but they have little else in common.
The second part of your paragraph claims without evidence that the Yap system never experienced inflation or deflation and that as a result the Yap were never poor. It claims that the Brazilians tricked Brazilians into having faith in a worthless new currency and that Argentina should to the same to cure its hyperinflation. If you were up to the challenge, you’d be connecting that claim to something comparable in the Yap culture. What keeps the Yap faithful to their currency, and why did it not have to be replaced?
Paragraph 4. You’re pairing another set of not very compatible observations here, Sunflower. I see the structure of your argument clearly now, to use each research source for insight into some economic condition in the US. Readers like me start to wonder how the pairs were chosen. The Federal Reserve, you say, control fluctuations of inflation and deflation by manipulating interest rates and money supply. But you pair it with the German’s fiat devaluation of the fei instead of with the Brazilians’ failure to tame their own inflation crisis.
Paragraph 5. It would be a big job to organize all your observations to follow a single logical argument throughout your 1000 words, Sunflower, but that should always be the goal. Your conclusion that views of money vary and that world economies vary is not the most satisfying. You try to redeem that position by offering that all countries share the concept of inflation. So maybe THAT is where you can find your thread.
Overall Argument
You have a good idea here, Sunflower, telling a story of several countries’ relationships to money that parallels the value humans of different ages place on money. You’ll need to organize your comparisons better to get the benefit of that plan. Maybe the Yap relate to money in a way kids do; the Brazilians maybe had to throw out the baby of their first currency to save the bathwater; the US invented “the Fed” to control the value of its money like a finally mature economy. I’m not suggesting you should spend that kind of time on a Rewrite, but it would provide a more solid structure.
I appreciate your feed back and all of your suggestions that would better my essay. I will correct them and let you know once I am finished. Thank you!
You are exceptional.
PROVISIONALLY GRADED. Grade is on Canvas or will appear soon.
Revisions (and the regrading that follows) are encouraged but not required.
RESPONDING to feedback is STRENUOUSLY encouraged.
Thank you for the feedback!