Understanding the Role of Money!
How Many Cows
Are In Your Bank Account?
“Let's
Talk…about Money”
Exactly
what is money? What is wealth? Answers to these questions usually provide
typical responses such as money
means power, control, security, comfort, happiness,
satisfaction, enrichment, etc.
These responses simply represent feelings or experiences
from exchanging something of
perceived value for goods and services.
In reality, money itself is a
means of exchange, and nothing more! Over time, wealth has
been measured in many ways. In
ancient times, wealth was measured by ownership of
such diverse items as gold
pieces, seashells, animal furs, crops, and, yes, even the number
of cows an individual owned. Some
of these measures of wealth still exist today in some
parts of the world.
For
people who use what we think of as primitive forms of monetary items, the same
feelings of power, control,
security, comfort, happiness, satisfaction, and enrichment are
experienced when something of
perceived value is exchanged for goods and services. In
previous times, previous times,
the wealthy farmer needed enough cows for barter in order to sustain life
and provide a comfortable
lifestyle for his family. Today, the paper and coins we call
money does the same thing.
Have
you ever wondered how the use of paper currency became accepted as a means of exchange?
You may not realize that Canadians were the first in North America to use
paper currency. In North
America's early days, settlers here were often cut off from their
previous homeland for months at a
time. During such prolonged periods of isolation,
coins became in short supply
while waiting for the next supply ship from the
“motherland” to cross the
Atlantic.
By
the late 1600's, silver coins were scarce to the point where the authorities of
the day were unable to pay the soldiers wages. Enter Mr. De Meulles to devise a
solution to
divert an economic collapse, not
to mention a mutiny from the military! Mr. De Meulles
came up with the idea to write a
monetary value on ordinary playing cards. He signed
each card as evidence of their
authenticity and the modified playing cards soon became
widely circulated and accepted as
legal tender.
The
experiment in the use of paper money was deemed to be such a huge success,
playing card money continued for
many years, and eventually evolved through various forms of paper money to the
point of currency we use today.
In thinking of money and wealth,
how much different is society today versus generations
ago? Perhaps not as different as
one might think! The main difference between life
today and that of previous
generations, as we see it, is in the way present society defines what living a
comfortable lifestyle means.
We
currently live in an era where technology and communication play a very big
part of our everyday lives, much more so than experienced by previous
generations. Most of us
have televisions, radios,
computers, household appliances, cars, and other modern
conveniences we feel we need to
have in order to live a comfortable lifestyle.
As a result, society has
categorized us into the “haves” and “have not's.” It seems many
people feel that if they cannot
afford some of today's so-called luxury items, they are not
wealthy, at least in terms of
society's current definitions of wealth. One suggestion as to
why people so readily use loans
and credit cards today is to purchase goods and services,
which in turn help individuals to
feel wealthy, at least wealthy as seen from their point of
view! This has caused some people
to have difficulty in sorting out, in their own minds,
the difference between “need to
have” items and “nice to have” items.
Certainly, we need the paper and
coins we call money to survive in today's world, just as
people of earlier generations
needed cows, gold, and furs to survive. An important issue
to consider lies in how we are
defining our perceived wealth. One dictionary defines the
word “wealth” as:
“Riches, feeling
of enrichment, being rich, rich people; abundance, having an
abundance of
money!”
From
this definition, we can see that wealth does, indeed, make reference to money;
however, it also makes reference
to abundance and enrichment. Abundance could be
money, but it also could be an
abundance of love, or perhaps an abundance of family
harmony. Enrichment is not just
about money, either. Enrichment could also be simply
how you feel about your life at
the present time. Many people feel enriched because of
their friends and family, or,
perhaps, by their contribution to the community.
Money does not equal happiness!
This is perhaps one of the most common money myths
experienced by many people today.
Happiness is the experience or moments you create
for yourself, whether you
actually use money or not. Happiness is not a destination; it is
an ongoing journey, which
sometimes, but not always, requires money!
“Happiness
sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open!”
-John Barrymore
No comments:
Post a Comment