Francisco's Money Speech
When people think of money they tend to go straight to the word evil. The world puts this term with money because money tends to cause problems for most. Money is a transaction in order to get a good or service. Without goods and services, money would not be in existent. If you produce and work you gain money. When you gain money you now have in your head that you will pay someone for either a product or service that has been produced. Without a man's mind there would be no production of any goods or services. Without this mind the production of money would not be around. Many people think that if you have money it will buy you happiness but in reality it just causes problems for people.
“Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?" (Rand, 2020)
I agree with this quote because most people that don't flaunt their money end up being successful because they don't rub their success in others faces. If you only rely on money to make you happy you will end up having a sad life and nothing to offer. People will get too ahead of themselves when it comes to money and the money will end up destroying the. It's not money that's the problem it's the person that is the problem. People consider money to be evil because they don't want to realize that the real issue sis themselves.
It's hard to survive without money. The truth is money isn't the problem, people's will power is the problem. The hatred of money comes from within someone because money holds so much power over them. Some say "they love money" but in really they just love the way it makes them feel and what it can do for them. Looters have such an obsession with money that they would do quite literally anything to have it for themselves. Men use money as a way to protect themselves from people, or life in general. Money is not the way to happiness, it can cause chaos and hurt more people than you would think.
The Money Confusion
The article talks about if we would just shrink the amount of money there was there would be more peace in the world. World War II took a huge toll on America money wise. World War II was when the economy completely collapsed. The population is what makes up the economy and what brings in the money. The hard truth is war takes down the population numbers which rises the wealth in the economy. Even though World War II was a very hard time for the United States economically, people still found a way to get their goods and services.
Germany was destroyed by World War II and left people starving due to the low amount of money they had. The reason why Germany had such a struggle with money is because the government could not fund the nation. Money is a dependable object that people can rely on.Cigarettes became a huge trade for money in Germany during World War II because they could not afford many resources. The article goes on to talk about how people think Bitcoin is this great way to make a lot of money but in reality it's not real money. Bitcoin is constantly changing and will never be consistent.
The author goes on to talk about that "real money" is unchangeable. Real money is consistent and stays the same always. Real money should be stable and not fluctuate. Real money is like gold it is solid and does not change in value. Bitcoin is hard to trust because it has no resources supporting it like real money does.
"Money is most useful when its value is constant and gold imbued money with consistency. Producers of actual goods and services chose gold as money par excellence many centuries ago, and we can clearly see why ever since politicians cheered on by economists left the "auto-pilot" stability that gold provided." (Tamny, 2022, p. 39)
I agree with the above statement because many people trust when money is stable and not always changing. The economy tends to trust things more when they are consistent and not constantly changing. People refer real money to gold because gold doesn't change nor does the value. Gold is easy to trust and not feel weary about when giving up your goods and services to others.
References
Rand, A. (2020, April 13). "Francisco's money speech" by Ayn Rand. Capitalism Magazine. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/Links to an external site.
Bylund, P. L. (2016). Chapter 2: The Price Is Right. In Seen, the unseen, and the unrealized: How regulations affect our everyday lives (pp. 15–26). essay, Lexington Books.
Tamny, J. (2022). Chapter 2: The Meaning of Stable Money. In The money confusion: How illiteracy about currencies and inflation sets the stage for the Crypto Revolution (pp. 29–41). essay, All Seasons Press.