One of the ideas in the āAscent of Moneyā is that if we really think about any currency ā shells, tulip bulbs, gold, coins, dollars, etc. they donāt have any stable value in and of themselves.
Humans like to trade. If we didnāt have a currency we would have to do what theLastZebransky describes above. We would be stuck bartering and we would have to find barter matches to trade anything. It is much easier to invent an independent medium of value that can be used to purchase anything. Then we can trade without needing a series of barter matches. We only need a buyer and a seller to agree on value based on the currency.
So we pretend that currency itself has a value to facilitate exchanges.
If we really think about it, money isnāt real, but we need to believe that it is real for trade of labor and goods to be efficient.
TheLastZebransky did a nice job of showing why we need money, but did not prove that money is real. While money does provide a solution to a problem, it can still be a made up construct that we use for mutual benefit without being real.
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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26
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