Money is something we cannot live without but we cant take it with us when we die. Our daily life revolves around money rather we like it or not. We go to school and wake up in the morning to make money because money runs the world. Without money we can’t eat, we don’t have a place to stay, we will live a stressful life without money. The more money you have the powerful you are. The most powerful figures on this planet are filthy rich. You can earn money in a million different ways and I believe that’s the reasoning for a lot of criminal activity because people are money hungry and will do anything for money.
In the article, “The Island of stone money,” by Milton Friedman he discuses the Yap people unique money system. According to the article the people of the Yap have been using a single currency if money for several years. The currency is a massive stone wheel called rai. With no precious metals on the island they resorted to limestone. The most interesting thing about the currency is that the stone don’t come in small exchangeable pieces but with massive discs with an opening in the center. When someone wants to make an exchange for the stone like a house, the seller would simply knowledge that the disc belongs to them. Its based on trust because you cant exchange the stone between one man and another. The people of Yap didn’t need to see the stone to know it exist just like we don’t see every dollar of our pay checks.
Broadcasting journalist a NPR radio told the story of Brazil 1950’s massive amount of inflation. The president of Brazil was responsible of prize freezing and restricting people from moving money to their bank which caused locals to be furious because their money was held captive in the bank. In 1993 Brazil’s finance minister turned to economist Edman Bacha for help. He wanted people to have faith in money again. He came up with is virtual currency. The people of Brazil had no problem in adopting this form of currency into their lives. That sense of financial stability was returned to them and surely enough, inflation rates decreased dramatically.
Counterintuitive 