MONEY – The heart of humanity

What is money? It’s value is not a constant. Its value is both quantitatively and qualitatively variable:

• When I was five years old my maternal grandmother (who had been orphaned at the age of eight, had lived through two world wars and the great depression) gave me a dollar bill in a Christmas card. At the age of five, I was interested in toys, not money. I lost the card and the dollar bill. Seventy-seven years later it would take twenty dollars to replace the buying power of that single bill. By losing it, essentially I lost a nickel by not saving it. She was aware of the importance of money for survival, but had no idea how it could be stolen by its devaluation. Fifty thousand dollars hidden in her mattress when she died had twenty percent of the face value it had when she put it there. The value of 50 thousand shrunk to two and a half thousand. Even that shrunken value was wasted because she was afraid to spend the money. 

Minting money has little to do with its value. Its value is generated by its use. Money is a tool that can be used to build or tear down humanity, one people. Its usefulness depends on how much it serves, its misuse is a disservice and not using it nullifies its existence. The rules and the rulers are insignificant if the financial structure divides the world into warring factions. Nature has its own rules. Discovering them and abiding by them establishes the value of any and all currencies.

As is the case with any tool, its safe use is of primary importance. Money is a tool that keeps being used with no regard for safety. It is spent to immediately multiply power with inadequate regard for consequences that result from that multiplication. Avoidable  consequences are needlessly suffered. Consider cars. They safely travel great distances rapidly and they are  becoming safer and more efficient tools. 

Money is the largest, most powerful tool available to humanity. Yet there are no reasonable efforts to control its safe use. Huge avoidable mistakes are identified too late, after the catastrophe. The most direct path to identifying the cause of catastrophe is to follow the money. 

History has clearly shown that there are three causes of the safety issues multiplied by money. They are ignorance, carelessness, and criminal intent. All of these can be nearly eliminated with a combination of education, science, and law. Failing to proceed in that direction is both stupid and inhumane. The regrettable “repetition of history” is exacerbated or caused by repeatedly using this most powerful tool in a manner that is not safe. People work for the power instead of allowing the power to work for them.   

Properly used, money increases in quantity and in value not because I said so, but because people are naturally empowered when they serve and protect each other. The tool they use to accomplish that becomes more valuable as it becomes more efficient. Money is naturally devalued when people fail. Properly used, money magnifies possibility. Improperly used it exponentially depresses humanity even to the point of nullification.

Ignorance is innocent. One is not responsible for not knowing, but corruption quickly hides behind innocence to take inhumane advantage of fallacy over truth, and so learning and teaching is a responsibility. What does ignorance have to do with money? It is the hiding place of bad intensions, a place that can only exist if money is improperly defined. Money is definitionally camouflaged “a wolf in sheeps clothing.” For humanity to have a healthy heart, money needs to be properly defined. Its value lies in its availability, not its scarcity. Its scarcity only empowers its corrupt use.

So, what is money? Money has a value that is a variable whose sign and absolute value depend on how it is spent. Money, the tool, is helpful only if it serves and protects humanity. It is a man made tool that is improved by the efficiency of all people to advance humanity. Protecting the safe use of money is how to protect people. Its safety features need to be built into the tool because its ignorant, careless or corrupt use bludgeons good intentions and slashes value regardless of the numbers on its face. 

Money controls the health of humanity. People share one world. Money is a tool necessary to share safety, satisfaction, and survival across borders, including ethnic and generational borders.