Myths of Money

“money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.” ― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

I was thinking about the renovations we have done recently and how money has replaced the goods that the barter system would have required in the past. We were fortunate in being a position where we had the money needed to make the exchange of skilled labour for currency.

My friend prefers using actual money to using her debit card. She says it is because spending it is real. While I tried to persuade her that using a debit card is every bit as ‘real’, she remains unconvinced. In neither of these cases does the money itself have any value other that what we and our society has given to it.

‘Today, all currencies around the world are fiat currencies, and not one single currency is backed by gold or silver … a fiat currency is a piece of paper with a number and two signatures. The faith of the people give it its real value. [emphasis mine] www.ecoomicreason.com [You can read the whole article at 'http://www.economicreason.com/usdollarcollapse/is-the-canadian-dollar-backed-by-gold/ ] You might well say the money is a myth! “Myth is stories about the way things never were, but always are.”― Marcus J. Borg

So then the only worth that money has for me is the worth or value to me of the goods or services I exchange it for. But once I have satisfied my needs and/or wants, then I can begin to accumulate extra money into billions of dollars. But if I don’t need or can’t even use this money to exchange for goods, then it really has no value at all. Which begs the question: why do so many people feel that their value depends on how much they are worth in dollars and cents?

'Money has nothing to do with the quality of life. It needs to be brought back into its original use, which is to be just a medium of exchange...It was an invention to ease trade, and now it has become the primary measure of our value, of how we talk about each other; it defines how productive our lives have been.' ~ An Other Kingdom [2016] by Peter Brock, Walter Brueggemann & John McKnight

Looking at this from another angle, if the ‘value’ of money is only to obtain that which I want or need and to reimburse me for work that I have done, then we need to be sure that it does just that. The value or worth of what I spend my money on, is in effect that which I find valuable or worthy.

And here I think is where we get to just what is meant by Stewardship both within and without of the church. As Christians, we are told that we should be tithing 10% of our money to the church, whether to not what that particular church is doing has value or worth to us. I believe that is wrong. It is up to us to see that the way we use our money truly reflects that which has value for us. This can be using it in meaningful ways whether by giving to the church or using it in one of the myriad other ways to ensure a decent life for all.

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