Counterintuitive Fall 2024

What is money? What is it used for?Why use it? These questions all have one thing in common and that is…money.Over centuries upon centuries human beings have used some form of trade system meaning they would give something of value to someone willing to give something valuable back.Over time humans of all races created a currency system which gave value to money that could be backed up by gold, to buy or obtain certain goods which drives back to its roots of trading.From gold, to paper and what else awaits,exchanging became a huge part in societies evolution.Of course there have been instances where greed came into play because more money means more power but if you have an enormous amount of it, does it still hold a value.

There is an island along the Caroline Island in the Western Pacific Ocean called Yap.The people that live there, usually called “yap” , had a very unique way on how they use currency and what they value as “money”.Jacob  Goldstein,David Kestenbaum,in “The Island of Stone Money” expresses the yap’s way of business.There is no gold or silver on the island of yap.Hundreds of years ago explorers from the island went on a journey and found limestone deposits miles away from their home.They decided to carve the huge stones into discs which could be from a foot to 12 feet in height and width and sailed them back.The bigger the stone,the more value it holds.The giant disc is owned by one person but never moves.Instead the town is notified every time for the disc’s new owner.Surprisingly the stone doesn’t even have to be on the island to count as money.It may be a fine line between their way of currency and ours but its actually not that different.

Cashapp,Zelle,Paypall and other online banking systems all have something in common.That is transferring money from one place to another but not exactly.All the money that is sent in these applications all are stored in the “cloud” but it still holds value.While physical money is not being moved but instead digital currency is being transferred into another account and has a new owner.In a way it is very similar to the yap’s way of business of the giant stone disc staying in one place but a new owner claims it.

“The Invention of Money:The Lie that Saved Brazil” an Npr broadcast discusses an issue in Brazil where the economy was going downhill and money had little to no value.Inflation was incredibly high in Brazil.In 1990 , inflation in Brazil was 80% not a year but a month! Meaning with inflation reaching 80% a month, items that would usually be ten dollars could round up to thousands at the end of the year.For example a person in Brazil was selling sunglasses but not in one single payment but in 6 monthly installments.

Everyday produce in grocery stores changed their prices, so much that someone had a specific job to do it.People used to rush to buy the groceries just before the employee could change the price.One could only imagine the chaos of everyday grocery shopping.This could prove problematic because people that need the produce to take care of their families would have a hard time obtaining groceries due to the inflation.It all started in 1950, the president wanted to build a giant city in the forest called “Brazilia”.He didn’t have enough for it so he printed out the money and single handedly was the cause for generational inflation.

Does making a mark on currency puts its value down? In “The Island of Stone Money” it describes how the German Government brought the Carolina islands from Spain in 1898.The Germans went to the Yap island and demanded that the streets were cleaned.If they were disobedient, In a happy thought, they would send a man to go to every failu and pabai throughout the island to mark the most valuable fei with an black cross.This cross made it known that it was the German Government’s property now.That is downright disrespecting their tradition they had for years.The Yap had improvised, they cleaned up the roads and highways.The Germans saw how good the islanders did and removed the black crosses from the Yap’s fei.

Just as you thought the United States didn’t have financial problems.In 1932-33 the French worried that the United States would not abide by the gold standard of $20.67 an ounce of Gold.The French asked the Federal Bank Reserve of New York to convert dollar assets to gold.They didn’t move the gold overseas but instead it was requested to store the gold on the Bank of France account.A label was put on draws with gold ingots on them to show that they were the property of France.Sound Familiar?

What is Bitcoin?How does it work?In “New to The Crypto World?Here are the terms to know” bitcoin is the name of the payment network of which this form of digital currency is stored and moved.It was introduced in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto,Unlike traditional payment networks, the bitcoin network is not ran by a person or company but by computers around the world to track all the transactions.So even the person that created it doesn’t have ownership over the whole currency.

Find it hard to believe but video games currencies have some meaning behind them.In “10 Video Game Currencies and their Real World Value” a game known as ‘Monster Hunter’ uses the currency Zeni which can be traced back to the 18th century of Japan.One U.S dollar is 105 zeni.Its amazing how video games can incorporated real world currency in a fictional fantasy.

In closing, money plays a very important part in any economy..With the Yap with their stone money to 1990’s Brazil.Money is used as a trading system that uses physical paper or coins to buy things.It doesn’t have the same value to everyone.If money isn’t backed up by a certain metal like gold then it holds no value.With digital cash quickly advancing,physical money would barely have any value anymore.

References:

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” The Island of Stone Money(1991): 3-7. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.

Chana Joffe -Walt “The Lie That Saved Brazil” Npr 423 Web Jan 7th,2011

Tom Bowen,”10 Video Game Currencies And Their Real World Values” Web.Oct 1 2020

Glass, Ira, Chana Joffe-Walt, Alex Blumberg, and Dave Kestenbaum. “423: The Invention of Money.” This American Life. Prod. Planet Money. 7 Jan. 2011. This American Life. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.

The New York Times”New to the World of Crypto?Here Are the Terms to Know” Web June 8

Inflation vs Social Media

What is Money? Is it even a symbol that is validated anymore? Money is a part of our everyday lives whether it’s in plastic form or physical. Over the years as technology advanced money was no longer just green paper with numbers on them to express the value of money. Now money is something that can be easily accessed through a phone or ATM. So with the form of money everchanging is valuable anymore? As inflation keeps rising money is becoming something that we just use to purchase necessities. Back in the 1900’s maybe even further money was valued no one was spending it on useless things. Now society sees money as something to spend to make memories rather than something to save. What is money? It’s a green paper that one point had value. 

In the Pacific Ocean, there is a tiny island called Yap where the residents use a giant limestone as money. They didn’t use the stone for everyday things; One it was too heavy and two the stone’s value was greater to use for big purchases. When they first arrived at the island money was said to be unclear on what it would look like. Until Yap saw a big stone two and fifty thousand away and brought it home. When they brought it back drilled a hole into the disc and decided that it was what they used for money. The funny thing about how they distributed the ownership is not by rolling it to each other’s house but by expressing to the island through tradition the stone’s owner has changed. Sounds ridiculous when you think about money being a stone but if you see and believe that an item has value could it be money? Yap proved that money could be pulled out of thin air if you see the value and the people around agree. 

Take for example what Brazil went through with high inflation before four college kids came to their rescue. Imagine going to the supermarket and racing to the aisle before prices were changed. Brazil’s idea of having money was spending it before it became useless. Brazil’s struggle with money continued for five decades because in the 1950’s the government came to a decision to build a new city but had no money to do. When the government had no money the next best thing was to print it which started Brazil’s five-decade battle with inflation. Their first solution was to do a freeze on the money. With that freeze, businesses stop selling products waiting for the prices to go back up. Part of the consequence of the prize is Brazil lost some residents due to suicide. Knowing about Brazil’s situation with money makes you reflect on how much money is a necessity for everyday expenses.

When you think about social media what comes to mind? No one realizes that social media could be associated with money. Social media is a platform to boast available information but also to influence one’s pocket. Digital Platforms are not the sole reason for inflation but it does drive it. Influencers are people who promote products that drive society to spend. If social media wasn’t around businesses would not have many consumers. Money is used for everyday expenses but influencers promote slightly better products. Social media drives money and money drives social media. It’s the way of how this generation functions. Now when one thinks of social media think twice if spending imaginary money is worth it. 

To sum up, the statements above money is losing its value whether it’s sunken down in the ocean or being printed. In the past times, money was valued and governments weren’t taking advantage of their power. As inflation keeps increasing money is more for spending than saving. When saving money is sitting in a bank to increase the value over the years but now with inflation are banks worth it anymore? If a government can print money anytime value of money shouldn’t be a problem. Is money even money if the Yap can use limestone as a way of payment?

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Ever played a board game? I’m sure you have. Most board games you play have sort of valuable or collectable items. Take a game like monopoly, I know a lot of us have played this game before. The objective of this game is to be the “richest” which is done by owning the most properties and having the most money while running everyone else bankrupt. The one thing you need in that game to succeed is money. Without money you cannot do very much, and this applies to a lot in life. Money has always been around us, in so many forms, and even in no form at all. Ever hear of stone money? I’m going to tell you about a little island in the pacific called Yap with a very interesting form of currency and how it relates so much to money nowadays (The Island of Stone Money).

The Island of Yap is a very small island located in the Pacific Ocean and is very well known for its ‘Stone Money’ (423: The Invention of Money). The people of this island had a very interesting way to approach their own form of currency hundred of years ago, and what they used were limestone discs, and these discs came in very many sizes, some even being bigger than cars; and these limestone discs were not found on the island of yap, but an “island with limestone caves about 250 miles away” (423: The Invention of Money)! The people of this island named these limestone discs “Fei” and the bigger the disc, the more value it had; Of course, having giant stone discs was a bit of an issue so instead of relocating them every time they transferred ownership, they would just claim them where they sat; which basically meant that if someone had a disc on a hill faraway, and I traded my house for this disc, only the ownership would transfer and now everyone would know that it now belongs to me. There was a story about how when the workers were returning with the giant discs from the far away limestone caves, they ran into a storm right outside the island and ended up cutting the Fei lose and losing it to the ocean (Friedman). When they got back to the island, they told everyone about this occurrence and believe it or not, the people of Yap decided that it was fine, and it could still be used! This meant that even though no one has seen this stone is hundreds of years, it still had value, and someone still has ownership over it (Friedman)!

This brings up a great point, because as much as we think “these people are crazy for thinking that you could just transfer ownership of your money without even handing someone something or giving them proof of ownership” well you might as well call yourself crazy as well, we do this all the time. In fact, this is how all our credit/debit cards work! There are no hand-to-hand transactions, it’s all just binary digits at the end of the day. Your money could be anywhere, but instead it’s a bunch of random numbers on the internet; just like your Fei could be anywhere, but you are the one who owns it! This is also seen commonly on many digital platforms. We can send “real” money with the touch of a button, and we can even own virtual currency! You can also exchange real currency for fake currency such as coins in video games. Of course, these currencies are not technically real or physical objects. But they have a certain worth to people and at the end of the day it’s the same principle as the Fei, it’s more of an idea than a real thing. ” As time has passed however, developers have greatly expanded on the initial idea to the point where the economies found within games are often just as complex as those found across the globe.” (Bowen)

Speaking of around the globe, did you know when the German Government purchased The Caroline Islands (Which Yap is a part of) from Spain in 1898, many of the paths were in terrible condition and “the chiefs of the several districts were told that they must have them restored to good working order” (Milton). But the “roughly dressed blocks of coral” (Milton) were quite suitable for the natives of the island. However, the Germans did not like that, and they decided to punish the Natives by painting a certain number of Fei with a black cross to signify that the money was being claimed by the German government. This was done to scare the People of Yap into fixing these ‘roads’ in order to get their Fei back. This was successful and roads were built on the island to connect everything and once the job was finished the German Government sent agents out to erase the black crosses from the Fei. (Milton)

The concept of Stone Money is a very interesting concept to me. The fact that the people of the Island of Yap were able to just place these limestone discs anywhere and still know how to claim them and use them for trade still blows my mind. One of my favorite parts is how I felt that these people were crazy but once I investigated it, I was able to relate almost everything that we do today with money to the ways that they did back then. But something that really blows my mind is how the Yap decided to use a piece of Fei that was lost to the ocean during the storm, as a valid form of currency even though for all we know, these guys could have lied to everyone to scam them out of their belongings. But either way it became a real form of currency that they trust, just like how we trust all these virtual currencies that don’t truly exist and have almost zero real life value. This little island seemed to just coincidentally make us realize that we all believe in many forms of currency, real or not, and how we put value to things. The people of Yap made me realize so much about our economy and how we believe in these currencies that we have made and how far it has come.

References

“423: The Invention of Money.” This American Life, NPR, 14 Dec. 2017, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/transcript.

Bowen, Tom. “10 Video Game Currencies and Their Real World Values.” Game Rant, Game Rant, 1 Oct. 2020, gamerant.com/video-game-currency-real-world-value/.

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” StoneMoneyEssay.Pdf, The Hoover Institution Stanford University, Feb. 1991, counterintuitive2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stonemoneyessay.pdf.

“The Island of Stone Money.” NPR, NPR, 10 Dec. 2010, http://www.npr.org/transcripts/131934618.

The value of money

Money is a valuable resource that people around the world use every day. Whether it’s cash, credit card, or something else it still has the same value when you pay five dollars with cash, credit, gift card, Venmo or whatever else you use to buy something. Some places may view money completely differently than others but to everyone money is still money. A value of a dollar can go up or down depending on what the country’s economy is like. Just like how the price of food can go up or down when you buy it or depending on where you buy it. But money is not the only form of buying something. Some people trade certain things in order to have value like food, clothes, or gold. But in reality, money is just created by people, and they decide to tell what is valuable and what is not. 

In an island out in the middle of The Pacific Ocean called Yap, there is a unique form of currency. They don’t use gold, silver or paper for currency. What they use is stone money as their currency. In the podcast of Jacob Goldstien and David Kestenbaum, the villagers took the resources they had and agreed to use it as money. However, they did not use the money for everyday purchases. The Stone Money was used for more major purposes because the stones were very heavy, and it would be tough to carry around the stone and some of them can be as heavy as a car. An example of this is people in the island would use The Stone Money in order to trade for crops if they did not have enough crops for themselves then they would often use their Stone Money to trade with others. Once a Stone was at the bottom of the sea, The villagers were bringing a stone to their Island from another Island, but then a storm hit and caused the stone to sink to the bottom of the ocean. When they got back to the Island, they decided that the money was still valuable even though it was underwater and nowhere to be found. According to the Milton Friedman Article, later on the Europeans found the stones around the village, outside of homes and all around the island. The Germans bought the Island from Spain and painted crosses on the Stones to show that the currency was now in control of the German government. This changed the value of the currency now that the Germans were on the island. Even though the Germans changed up how the Island was living, the people of Yap still considered their stones valuable in their own way.

In Brazil there was a huge problem with the economy. According to Chana Joffe-Walt’s podcast, the cost of food was going up every month. It caused the economy to be very unstable. In the 1990’s the inflation was 80 percent per month. People in Brazil have been living like this for many years. In the stores the prices changed pretty much every day. This was causing a huge problem for Brazil because the money you received six months ago is worth so much less now than it was when you got the paychecks. The Government for decades was trying to stop the inflation from going up so dramatically. An example of this is in 1985 the government tried to freeze the price but that didn’t work out because the merchants did not want to sell anything because they felt like they would not make enough money so then it caused the prices to go back up in order for people to sell stuff. When it looked like there was no hope for Brazil’s economy, new people were called to help the government’s economy. They were not experienced at all in the government. There was a new currency called a virtual currency that was not printed or coins. This was called URV’s and more things were posted in URV’s and this money was stable and did not go up or down dramatically at all. The regular currency was still being used though. If people wanted to use the regular currency then it was posted in the local newspapers. According to Chana Joffe-Walt’s podcast, One day one URV was equal to seven cruzeiros. The Next day, one URV was equal to twelve cruzeiros. This was causing the infiltration to go down and caused the economy to become much more stable. In the end this helped Brazil’s economy to be stabilized and therefore the currency became much more valuable with its cash and not having cruzeiros be worth nothing.

The Federal Reserve is something that helps the economy in the United States. According to David Kestenbaum and Alex Blumberg’s podcast, the Federal Reserve is not part of the government. It is really Ironic because it literally has the word federal in it .Although they do create money for the Country. Money can also be created out of thin air which is crazy to believe sometimes. When the economy was not doing so well, They created Billions of dollars just out of nowhere. If the Government creates money out of nowhere, it could help and hurt the economy at the same time. For one it could help people get more loans but on the other hand the infiltration rate could go up way too much. The Federal Reserve can change the value of a dollar by a lot just by creating money in thin air which can really do a lot for the economy.

Video games can have their own ways of currencies in their own game. This can really change the value of money that you can use in the game depending on how much money you use in the game. According to the article, Gamerant.com, in Pokemon, if you use 1 dollar in the game on your credit card it will equal 105 Pokedollars, but in Super Mario 1 dollar equals 11 coins. These examples show that depending on the video game, spending a certain amount of money can be different. Another example is According to the article, The Gamer. Com, you can buy stuff on games but sometimes they can be unplayable if people refuse to buy anything on the game itself. Some people just want to just buy the game itself and not anything else on it because it can already be very expensive to do so. More games nowadays have things you can buy on them rather than not which can be good and bad in its own way.

As  stated before in these examples money and currency can have its own value depending on what you decide to do with it. It has changed value so much over the course of the centuries depending on how people used it in the past, present and future and it will continue to do so over time. As mentioned, money will keep evolving and changing as we change the way we live.

References

Bowen, Tom. “10 Video Game Currencies And Their Real World Values.” Game Rant.Com, 1 Oct. 2020, gamerant.com/video-game-currency-real-world-value/#coins-super-mario—1-11-coins.

Coulson, Josh. “Smash Bros. Ultimate Lets You Spend Money for in Game Currency.” The Gamer.Com , 8 Nov. 2019, http://www.thegamer.com/super-smash-bros-ultimate-money-ingame-currency/.

Ketsenbaum, David, and Alex Blumberg. This American Life , http://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money/act-two-0. Accessed 24 Sept. 2023.

Goldstein, Jacob, and David Kestenbaum. “The Island of Stone Money.” NPR, NPR, 10 Dec. 2010, http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money.

WordPress.Com, counterintuitive2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stonemoneyessay.pdf. Accessed 25 Sept. 2023.

“The Invention of Money.” This American Life, 19 Feb. 2018, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money#play.

Stone Money

Since the beginning of time there has been some source of currency. Currency plays a large factor in society, back in the day bills where very low and a little easier to keep up with although the pay rate was low, it was more manageable for example “ $100 in 1950 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,273.97 today”(Ian Webster). This alone shows how much the currency system has changed and will continue to. In todays world if you do not have a steady income you would not be able to make it very far, money controls everything we do. Because of this many problems can occur. 

Currency is different all over the world. The most common money system before would be some sort of metal, gold, or silver. There are still many places that did not have any of these resources so they were forced to create their own currency system . It could be something such as a piece of paper or even large pieces of stone. For example, the Yapese people, they were located in the Western Caroline islands. On this island there was no source of gold nor silver. Due to their lack of resources their money was a circular limestone disk that they found 400 miles away and brought back to their island. They decided that the limestones were going to be their source of currency (Milton Friedman). They used it as if it was money but the value of the stone was so high that they could not use it to buy everyday things; they would mostly only use it for large purchases such as, a gift for a wedding. 

 Many societies value currency as a fundamental concept. Due to its appraisal in society money will always continue to run everything, anywhere you go. I believe a piece a paper with a 5,10,20, etc on it, is considered worthy; Due to the perceptions and beliefs ingrained in our society. “ Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” (Aym Rand). This quote emphasizes the instrumental role of money. It shows that money is not inherently valuable but serves as a means to an end. Those pieces of paper with those numbers on it holds worth because it allows individuals to acquire goods and services, fulfilling their needs and desires. This brings a common topic: whether,money can buy happiness or not. There are many people all over the world that could have no income and are happier in life then many millionaires. I believe money can buy happiness to a certain extent; with the benefit of having a good source of income, it could definitely help you financially and allow you to enjoy yourself more. Which could be considered as temporary happiness. However, having an abundance of money can cause you many problems and stress if you allow it. For example many people in today’s generation want the most expensive things to impress others and be socially accepted into society. That causes many people to end up broke from purchasing materialistic items for others, instead of saving and investing. 

The age of the modern dollar bill is collapsing, drastically and coming to its ultimate demise. The U.S could be faced with another economy crash and be forced to go into another recession. This is caused by “political or economic upheaval, hyperinflation, or war”. Right now, the U.S is suffering from hyperinflation. The cost of living today is at an all-time high as opposed to other years. We are constantly stuck paying other country’s an absurd amount of money, wasting it in war, or its dishonorably being displaced. There is a societal pushback recently due to the rise in cost of living. Many residents of highly populated areas are forced to migrate to either, dangerous, unhealthy, or dirtiest places. Simply because rent costs too much. People are forced to do unimaginable things, just to provide for themselves and their families. Through all this turmoil, the U.S has yet to come up with a solution to many of these problems. Instead, we are more focused on things that are not necessarily impacting us American’s.

References

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1950

stonemoneyessay.pdf (wordpress.com)