What is Money to a Person?

"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." ~Henry Ford

What do we know about money?

• Money is dynamic: We can't escape money. It is woven with the power structures of our society as well as forces of fate and providence.

• Money is emotional: Money raises our mood or brings anxiety, security, promise, envy, fear, pride, guilt and accomplishment.

• Money is interpersonal: Money only exists because another person (maybe disguised as a business or society) will agree to the value of the next thing we want to buy or sell.

• Money is full of meaning: Every dollar we earn, spend, donate, borrow, invest, wager or bequeath attempts to accomplish something in the world.

What is there new to say about money?

Money seems to tell us something about value - our value - to the world. When we are short of money we worry and when we have plenty (whatever plenty means) we feel at ease. Money can solve a lot of problems but it cannot do everything. It doesn't guarantee happiness and "can't buy me love."

Money is world wide. You would be hard pressed to find a place where people wouldn't understand the coins and fancy paper that you pull out of your pocket or purse. There are few things so routinely shared across all nations and peoples.

Is it too radical to think that we actually hold the value of our money for each other? More than any government, we will rise or fall together through our inter-reliance on other people's skills, our own preference for doing one thing well, and by shifts, hopefully unified shifts, in what is of value in our society.