What is money? A Medium of Exchange? A Social Institution? A Language? Belief? Faith? Trust?

[alttab7890]

@syok92 I know! lolol!

[meka4996]

How about printing money or printing currencies?? Do Govt/Central banks print it as much as they want and desire?

[zthustra]

Money is a word that has a definition and there is no faith required. Etymologically it comes from the same root word as "mint" and refers to coin. Most defintions have two elements, if is used as a medium of exchange for goods and services and it provides the unit of measure for the value of goods and services. Commodity money has value in and of itself. All money is a token of value for the goods and services it purchases. It is a store of value between ifs aquisition and its disposal.

[panstriato2]

Faith is required, as a medium of exchange it needs people to have faith that it will be accepted, faith that it will be accepted for a given value. Comodity money needs faith in that said comodity will be apreciated and that owners of the money will be able to exchange the money foy said comodity. Faith faith faith

[zthustra]

Faith is what you have in the absence of evidence. Something doesn't become money because you firmly believe it is, it becomes money because you accept it from others inexchange for good or services and others accept it from you for the same. It has nothing to do with faith.

[panstriato2]

Me and others accept it becouse we have faith yet others will accept it for the same. We have some ``evidence`` others will accept it becouse we see it happening, but it is only circumstancial evidence and not conclusive.

Something does not become money if I firmly belive it has value, but something does become money if I and many others start beliving it has value.

[zthustra]

This is a war of words.

It isn't money when you believe it is money. It is money when you and I and others use it to buy or sell goods or services.

We can say that it is money NOT because we believe it with all our hearts or have faith in it, but because people acutally accept it, hold it and spend it.

I know these people that believe only gold and silver are money, but they never spend them at the grocery store. Their fath and thier belief do not make the gold and silver money.

[panstriato2]

And people actually accept it, hold it and spend it becouse they belive others will do the same.

Gold and silver are the same, there are people who would throw away gold which means nothing to them, but (unless we use it ourselves for practical purpouses) we accept it (if we do) becouse we belive others will.

Now, you may say that we have evidence that it will be accepted becouse we saw it accepted in the past, but that is not physical evidence, it is circumstancial. This may sound to phylos

[zthustra]

The observation and experience of buying and selling with coins, notes, checks and credit cards is a "physical" observation because it all happens in the material world. It isn't something imaginary that happens in the mind and stays there. Money changes hands and people walk off with a happy meal. Most of us have the common core experience of using money.

It is money because we materially, physically use it as such, not because we imagine it to be money.

[panstriato2]

ophical, but in certain cases people do loose faith in its value and the price of a currency gets lower or people even stop using it

The reasons we use it materially are not physical but abstract

If a rock falls we presume others will not only becouse we have seen it physically happen before but cause we (some of us) have some understanding of gravity workings (a physical explanation). When we see people exchanging goods for money the only physical thing we see is goods being changed for paper.

[zthustra]

Amen! The actual exchange of goods and services for money is observable in the material and real world. It is this exchange of goods and services for a medium of exchange that makes that medium into what we call money. Whether the medium is coin, paper or electronic makes no difference, the medium of exchange is called money and it is money because it is exchangable and the value of goods and services is measured in units of the medium.

[panstriato2]

If everyone stops beliving a rock will fall when droped it will drop anyway. If everyone (or many people) stops beliving they will get something for their money (or start thinking they will get less and less) they in fact will not get anything for it becouse others will not take it. This is not just teory it has happened before and will happen again. Guess we will have to wait and see, I think it will happen to us both (unless we die soon).

Good luck and good bye

[zthustra]

OMG are you ever going to get it? When people stop using one thing and start using another, the first thing stops being money and the second thing starts being money. It is the fact of their usage of a thing as a medium of exchange that makes it money. Money is whatever people are using as a medium of exchange. You can't observe the invisible faith or belief of the people, but you can observe what they are using as a medium of exchange. What they actuall use is what we label money.

[PennnSmith]

I live in a small village where we exchange HOUR TOKENS. When a person does a work, for example gives a pedicure, they receive an HOUR TOKEN. Word of mouth is the sole advertising, and so, those who do the best service are very busy.

This has resulted in a communtiy of friends who've now built 42 nipa huts (mortgage-free) in the past year. Our nails are done often. We enjoy massages frequently, and enjoy multiple helpers whenever we need assistance.

I suggest you try it small first, then grow

[PennnSmith]

Money is the interference of efficient commerce. It will disappear once friends occupy the earth.