It's a topic that has been discussed many times
But in the last days I have had an insight that I wanted to share here. I haven't quite heard it expressed in this way, so I think it's worth exploring - and if you disagree please let me know! Also, this isn't supposed to be a comprehensive take on this issue; there are many ways of looking at it and this is just an expression of thoughts I had related to this complex topic.
Acceptance
First, there is acceptance to how things are. Few people begin to question the social and economic system that money is. We grow up learning about how to spend it or how to accumulate it, but rarely do we learn about its foundations. It is so ingrained into society that it becomes our modus operandi and therefore we do not even think about raising this question.
By accepting how things are, money becomes enshrined in legitimacy and this is why we accept the value that people tell us money has. It just simply holds value since we can go outside and buy goods and services with it. Everyone accepts it and we constantly get reinforced with this notion when making a transaction. This, of course, becomes problematic in countries where currencies suffer from (hyper)inflation; but for now let's stick with this idea.
Creation of Money
Ever since the financial crash of 2008 more and more people have been asking this question: "how exactly is money created?" The answer goes down a very deep rabbit hole and I think in general this has led a lot of people to "wake up" to how our system operates. But I would argue that for most people that have even started to ask this question, the answer is still largely ambiguous. Sure, there are now a lot of videos to watch that explain this process, but from my experience people still don't quite "get it". Even Joe Biden's chief economist couldn't give a straight answer.
Ja... so there is a dead end. At it's core, the answer is of course that fiat currencies simply "print" money out of thin air. I don't want to get into the details here, since the point I am trying to make is this: The whole process of money creation has been intentionally made to appear very complicated. And it is this complication that creates the legitimacy to keep things running how they are. If institutions and educational systems simply stated the simple truth that fiat currencies are created with a flick of a finger, people would likely find this to be unjust since only the elites are able to create it: "Why do we have to go to work every day when others can simply create that which we need to work for?" In other words, money would lose its value.
Taxation
It is actually this last point which is perhaps the most important one in understanding why money is valuable to us. The process of creating money for the average individual requires work. Even when it is not a physical job, creating money is never easy (unless for the rich where money makes money). It is hard to earn money and this very hardship is what creates the value for us.
But there is more. It is not only hard to make money, but it also hurts to lose it. We all know this and it happens in one way or another at some point in time. But perhaps the one thing that might elude us is the fact that money is being taken from us just about every time we interact with it. This happens through taxation. There are all sorts of taxes and we definitely feel it when we do our tax declaration every year. The state wants a share of the hard money we earned. It is no coincidence that the word "tax" is used to express a loss or penalty when something is "taxing".
When something is taxing we refer to the root of that hardship when we acknowledge that money is being taken away from us through a legitimized actor, i.e. the state (or kingdom). Perhaps one could even argue that the state by taxing its citizens creates the necessary pain through which it legitimizes money itself.
Conclusion
So what do you think? To me these three points seem to hold a valuable insight into the question of why money holds any value. I am sure there is much more to say on this topic, but I just wanted to share them here.
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only for a short period of time, I could buy a lot of coca cola 10 years ago for $10, today not.. fck FIAT is shit!
Hoard your coins, the banksters buy them at face value from the mint, they are treasury money and will survive the frn's collapse.
Every dollar of coins in your jar is a dollar out of the pockets of the people that made things this way.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm