Thanksgiving reminds us to be grateful for the people and things we value in our lives. I propose we include money in our expressions of gratitude, both the money we have and our ability to acquire it.
Money is so important in our daily lives, many ordinary events would not happen without it. At its core, however, money is only a means of exchange.
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors bartered. The cobbler traded shoes for the farmer’s wool. If the cobbler didn’t need all the wool, he could trade some for the miller’s grain. There were problems with the barter system. Both parties had to agree on the value of the goods being exchanged. Both had to want the goods or services available to trade. Food products had to be in season. And, it was difficult to lug around hard goods. Imagine doing your grocery shopping with bags of grain in tow.
Our ancestors solved these problems by developing standardized monetary systems to buy and sell goods and services. These systems evolved over the years to the “fiat money” we have today. In the fiat money system, money is money because a government decrees it is “legal tender.” Legal tender means the money is backed by the full faith and credit of the government that issues it. The money itself has no value. Although barter still exists on a small scale, the government mandates the use of money for most transactions.
Today, many people no longer use paper bills and coins. Paper checks represent money; money is transferred electronically. We have accountings at our banks and brokerage houses telling us how much money we have stored, and we have confidence it will still have value when we use it at a later date.
Money is only a mechanism for trade. Instead of buying a car with cows, we buy it with money. Yet, money has come to mean much more. For many people, money represents status and power, two things that frequently come with wealth. For others money symbolizes love, freedom, independence, or safety. These associations are not about the money itself, but what money represents for the individual. People stress about not having enough money, or keeping what they have. Many couples have difficulty talking about money. Their emotions around money hijack the conversation, quickly dismissing the topic of money and highlighting what it represents.
Money is only a mechanism for trade. We can store it up and buy something in the future, such as travel in retirement. We can borrow from others when we don’t have enough and reimburse our lender over a period of time. We can buy ownership in companies and be paid part of their earnings or sell our shares later at a profit (or loss). But in the end, money is still only a substitute for the bags of salt we no longer need to lug to the market place.
We need money. We need it to buy food, clothing, shelter, transportation, entertainment, services, etc. Regardless of how we use or abuse it, regardless of how much comes and goes out of our accounts each month, regardless of how much we have compared to what the neighbors seem to have, I believe we need to be grateful for the money we do have. We need to be grateful for the sources that generate it for us, be it jobs, investments, trusts, real estate, gifts, or government benefits such as Social Security. Without money, life for most of us in our modern world would be nearly impossible. (And, I am not certain there is enough land to go around for all of us to go back to subsistence farming.)
Happy Thanksgiving.
This blog is published to provide you with general information only, and is not intended to provide specific or comprehensive advice. Money Care, LLC encourages individuals to seek advice from competent professionals when appropriate.
Blog text © 2015 by Money Care, LLC.
