Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Alchemy of Money


  I began this blog a bit backwards. Usually an author’s first blog post sets the tone for the work to come. I did so but failed to focus on the real theme of this blog; MONEY.
What it is, where it comes from and what it represents. So I beg you forgiveness.


"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

Money is not evil but a measure of goodness.

  Money is a medium of exchange between free men. Men of honor. Men who produce to the best of their abilities and provide a benefit to other free men. When money is earned in a free market, it represents the value of your life to others. It can only be that way. Men will not pay money for an inferior product when a superior product is available. Money is an organic being that chases the best of men and rejects the worst. The lazy and unproductive provide no value to others; therefore money does not follow them. Money is a certificate of achievement. It is a reward for your efforts in the eyes of your strictest critics, those who would trade the best of their effort for the best of yours.

   Money is a measure of value. Money represents the value of the lives of those who earn it to those who accept it. Money is what you expect for your efforts. Not just because of what wealth you can trade for it, but for what it represents. The approval of those who wish to freely trade their lives for the products of yours. Should a Doctor be better paid than his receptionist? Of course. The doctor earned his money after years of effort and preparation in his field. He sacrificed to learn his trade and to equip himself with the tools necessary to provide a critical service to those who need it. Without the doctor’s effort, there would be no receptionist.
Should an oil company make billions of dollars producing oil? Yes! Would life not be unbearable without all the things that oil provides? Do you know how to extract oil from the soil? Have you invested billions of dollars and decades into extracting the most efficient source of energy known to man? No? Then don’t begrudge the men who have. They produce something you cannot and have provided the life blood of the exponential leap in the quality of life enjoyed by humanity today. How much food do you think a farmer in Kansas could produce without a tractor? Not just the diesel the truck needs to run, or the oil that keeps the engine lubricated; but the excavating vehicle that dug out the iron ore and the dump truck that transported it to the smelter and the electricity that powered the lathes and the assembly line where the tractor was built? How many people could be fed without the incredible efficiency provided by just that one tractor?

You owe your life to that oilman.

So how much money should he receive for the value he brings to your life? Try to live without the products of his mind and hands and then decide.

Money is a means of storing wealth. Money is what you save until you are ready to exchange it for wealth. Money is not wealth, but a simile of wealth.  Saving gold and silver does not make you wealthy, your production does. But gold saves your surplus effort until you are ready to trade your efforts for the deserving effort of other producers. Gold, just by its nature, is instinctively and universally recognized as money. There is a reason why a dowry consisted of gold. It established a solid foundation for a new bride to acquire the wealth she needed to start a new home. There is a reason why gold was used as money even before biblical times. It is corrosion proof. It is rare and it is valuable. In every culture and in every period of recorded history gold has held value. Your life and the products of your mind should hold their value. Is there devaluation on the work a doctor did to save your life; or in the works of a sculpture or an architect? So why should the measure of their labor not hold the same standard?

Take a dollar bill out of your pocket. Look at it and tell me if you honestly believe that what you are holding in your hands is money. Is that piece of linen and ink the value of your mind and efforts? Is that the value of your life?
How did this happen? How could a piece of paper, or even worst, digital pulses of energy stored in a computer be the representation of your value as a man? Who did this to you? Who has swindled you into believing that you are only worth this cheap piece of paper? A cheap piece of paper that depreciates every minute of every day. A cheap piece of paper that must be spent before the work you did for it is lost. A cheap piece of paper that cost almost nothing for the paper masters to produce. It has no value, because it required no effort. Gold is mined out of the ground by the blood sweat and tears of those who mine it. Paper is just a dead tree and some ink. It is literally printed by the millions and requires almost no effort to produce. Who are the paper masters?

The Alchemists of Money.

2 comments:

  1. The more I read FOFOA, the more I am convinced that the idea of money must not be that it is BOTH a medium of exchange AND a store of wealth. No.

    We will always need fiat as a way to daily transactions in an easy way. Even in the hyperinflations and their aftermaths fiat has been used so.

    But, I and others believe that once the burdens upon gold are lifted, the price of gold, the BEST wealth preserver in town will go way up.

    "All else will be left behind when the Mother Ship (gold) Takes off" -- Zero Hedge commentator Gordon_Gekko

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  2. Robert, notice I did not say "currency" must be able to store value. Federal Reserve Notes are NOT money, they are just currency. It is the greatest theft in the history of the world that we have been convinced that linen and ink is money.

    To a certain degree, I believe we have already arrived at the prelude of freegold. A small but growing number of us are removing our savings from currency and exchanging it for gold and silver. Will gold reach 50-60k an ounce? Perhaps. But in the meantime I am grateful to be able to buy it at $1500.

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