money is only an idea

CHAPTER ONE

MONEY IS ONLY AN IDEA
“Money is not real,
The only real thing is the production
and consumption of value”

History has it that before the concept of money was invented we had what was called the trade by barter system. This meant if I needed anything I had to look for someone who both had what I wanted and needed what I had. Then, money was invented. Cowry, gold, paper notes and the electronic format of money as we have them today.
With the recent trend in world economics and the seeming rise of the Chinese economy, I think it is important that we understand all these issues from the factor that controls them all.
In the 1970’s President Richard Nixon of the United States of America took the dollar bill off the gold standard because he realized that more gold was leaving the country than the country was receiving in other words they were consuming more than they were producing and money is a currency, implying that it is a form of current, a current that flows from consuming nations to producing nations still the US experienced the largest trade deficit of 661.8 billion dollars in 2005(Guinness book of records 2008 edition). This meant when you find the difference in dollars of what departed the US in trade (in 2005), you would get a stunning sum of 661.8 billion dollars, the US had gotten on the wrong side of the game of money. So who was on the right side? China with 2 billion citizens has a whopping 90% middle class citizen. They are the ones getting the money. Why? Because they understand that if you start solving problems you will make debtors of everyone else. It’s not only the US that has the problem. Several other developed and developing nations also have this problem. Here in Nigeria, we were known to be one of the largest exporters of agricultural produce. We had a strong currency because ‘money’ as current was flowing into this country. Then, came the oil boom in the late seventies but revealed its real face as an oil doom in later years. Lately most of the goods consumed in Nigeria is imported, then what? The Naira has been falling and so is the standard of living. People started blaming everyone else: the government, their parents, the constitution, their friends, even God for their lack of money. But they have forgotten that before money was trade by barter. Even though the system has changed, the idea has not; the idea has just been well packaged into a paper or polymer note. This note is an IOU (I owe you) handed to you by the government. This note doesn’t mean you have money “in a sense” it only mean you have value. And value starts where and when it is produced but ends where and when it is consumed. So money really is not real. If you have seen a twenty pound note you’ll discover if you look closely, you notice that the chief cashier of the bank of England wrote that. “When you present this not you’ll be issued 20(twenty) pounds” meaning what you have in your hands really isn’t 20(twenty) pounds, it’s just a proof that you have a value worth 20 pounds with the government.
“Even though the system has changed,
the idea has not;
the idea has just been well packaged
into a paper or polymer note”

So money is just an idea. An idea that works for those who produce value and fails for those who only consume value. Therefore, in monetary terrains, money flows from the consumers of value to the producers of value. Because money is not real, it is only a medium of exchange, a measure of value and a unit of account. Hence THE ONLY REAL THING IS THE CREATION AND CONSUMPTION OF VALUE. Money is only an idea. An idea that works in favour of those who understand the game of money.