Give a man a fish and he`ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he`ll eat for a lifetime. But teach a man to fish efficiently, and he`ll open up a business.
Imortal opens the door to the underlying premise that too many people simply don`t understand, or they`re just ignoring. There`s really no such thing as an "economy." Nor is there any such thing as a "society."
These are terms we apply, using human minds, to build an idea....a concept in our mind so we can manipulate that concept.
What does exist are people. Individual people. What also exists are things. Individual things.
An "economy" is the concept we use to examine the large-scale movement of "things" as "people" trade back and forth. A "society" is the concept we use to examine lots of people acting in some sort of organized way.
We may end up without any money in our economy, but that doesn`t mean all the people will suddenly vanish. Nor does it mean all the things will disappear. So for example, if you own a house and you want to get rid of it, you may find it easier to trade the house for a car or a paper-clip or a bike.
But the house won`t vanish. You won`t vanish.
The money we`ve been using used to be backed by a general assumption that the government was balancing each dollar with some portion of the real things moving around. That "credibility" allowed us to use money for intangible things like services.
Without any credibility, the money symbols mean nothing at all.
We definitely need to keep in mind this basic principle. Money is one thing, but people and things are totally different from money.
Just so, there`s quite a big difference between being rich, and being wealthy.
CraigL2009-2-28 2:59:42