Money - An exploration

I have been told time and time again that economic arguments to action are those that are most convincing to people of all sorts - individuals, neighbourhoods, cities, governments, and corporations. In the end, and in the beginning, the economy we talk about ends up representing our values through amounts of money. Much of this blog has been devoted to the choices we make in our lives, and what drives those choices. Money is a key determinant of our choices, and therefore, I will be exploring the notion of money - what it means, how it functions, how it shapes our thinking and collective action, and what this means for the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, the land we stand on, and all sentience and non-sentience on this Earth.


I started writing down some of my thoughts about money last night, and I realised that just like my other threads of thought, my thoughts on money are rudimentary. I am no economist, but I do use money, as do most people around me, and therefore, each and every one of us is in the position to think about what it represents to our lives. I will start off this series with just a few thoughts, which I hope to build upon in the coming weeks.

We feel that money is a good representation of our value to society, and the value of society. The government feels that as long as the pot of money in our country continues to grow, this is good thing. But while those that earn a lot of money may be nice people, just because money exists somewhere out there, and is continuing to grow, doesn’t mean anything for those that are continuing to face continued degradation – the poor, the environment. What has Wall Street done for you lately? On the other hand, what has the ever-present volunteer added to your life? Maybe with time and compassion, the impact of the volunteer is much more meaningful to you than an investment banker that is trying to add to the country’s GDP. In the end, maybe the most valuable experiences we have are dictated more so by the true connections we make with people and place, not by a dollar value we can assign to them. The notion of traveling at home is just one example of this. Many of us can spend a few hundred dollars to constantly go somewhere, and be a stranger. But we can also choose not to spend the money, and instead be a neighbor, a community member, a volunteer, an organizer. Of course, these choices don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but you know what I mean.

I hope to hear your thoughts on this series.