Invention of Money- Eddie Jahn

Posted on January 19, 2012 by jahne92

Currency is a unique concept to think about.  From fei, to dollars, to gold, it is a hard thing to really think about. People do not even most of the money they own they only see a piece of paper that has numbers on it and their name on it . People believe that they have as much money as their bank account says, but in reality they cannot spend their paychecks without cashing them in for dollar bills. My thinking has changed tremendously about money from reading about fei and about the Federal Reserve Bank transferred gold to the Bank in France.  That was basically like the Germans taking their money and putting their money on it, then when they got what they wanted which was the repaired money they took their names (the black cross marks) off of their money.  Same with the Federal Reserve Bank they just took their gold and put it in a drawer and labeled it “French”. This just blows my mind how that worked, I am kind of dumbfounded because that is how all money is, and people cannot do anything about it unless they have every single dollar out of your bank account in your possession, like in your closet or something. You have to trust in the bank that all your money is in their though, because your not going to see it, and it really is believing in what you cannot see.

This entry was posted in Stone Money. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Invention of Money- Eddie Jahn

  1. davidbdale's avatar davidbdale says:
    January 24, 2012 at 11:49 am

    Eddie, your first few sentences are the written equivalent of warm-up throws, or rubbing your hands together to improve your grip before picking up the sledgehammer. Both serve a purpose, but they don’t compare to the live action. We can do something else while you’re getting ready.

    For example, that slip of paper with numbers on it. That’s a nice curve ball. Serve that up. A good first sentence that uses it might be: “The little slip of paper from the ATM that tells us our current balance is as close as most of us get to holding our wealth in our hand.”

    The next thing you say tries to do exactly that, and I applaud you for it. People can’t spend their paychecks without first converting them into dollars, you say. But you know it’s not true. We can almost go paper-free. Even parking “meters” take plastic now, and debit cards can be swiped for trivial transactions.

    Your “My thinking has changed tremendously” sentence is a classic example of the sentence type I tried to illustrate in the “Say Something” handout, Eddie. Now that you know what to look for, I hope you’ll be on the lookout for sentences that tell us that you’re going to tell us something without actually telling us something.

    Your next sentence is very confusing mostly because it uses the word money four times in ways that seem arbitrary. Does it make sense to you?

    I do appreciate that the story has given you a new awareness of the arbitrary nature of currency and the oddities of how it’s counted and exchanged. Expressing that you’re dumbfounded is just the first step in a good essay though, Eddie. Finding some clarity to resolve that confusion is more valuable. It seems comical now that anybody would feel more comfortable with a pile of greenbacks, doesn’t it? Why is that? Those dollars could easily be stolen or burned in a fire, whereas they don’t even have to physically exist to give you buying power in a bank. And even if they’re “stolen” by an identity thief, “they” can be “retrieved” without having to track down the currency, since there was none to begin with.

    These and other ideas you could explore if you elect to rewrite.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment