Power and Money 101

 Introduction

 

Three memes affect human lives globally – Money, Power, and God. In this series I will discuss money and power. Money and Power are linked together in the lives of people who believe in a god, as well as people who have no religious beliefs. It goes without saying, that the American lives are directly affected by how much or how little money and power people have. However, most people know little or nothing about what money and power are, how they are created, or how people acquire them.

 

Amazingly, in light of the fact of the importance of money and power in a capitalist democratic nation, our educational institutions, from Pre-K to Ph.D., do not teach the answers to those questions. Most people enter adulthood with very little knowledge about money and power.

 

Why? There are many answers to that question, but the following should be included in every discussion.

 

● People with lots of money and power actively work to keep them.

 

● People with little money and power do not know how they can change things.

 

● As long as most Americans remain uneducated about power and money, they are easily manipulated by those with power and money.

 

Power 101

 

● Power means “getting someone else to do what you want them to do.”

 

● Humans have two options for exercising power – persuasion and force.

 

● One of the most powerful persuasion options is money.

 

● One of the most powerful force option is death.

 

● In America there are many laws related to power and money.

 

Laws are compromises reached between a majority of elected members of government institutions – local, county, state and federal.

 

Money 101

 

● Money has historically been defined in terms of the three functions or services that it provides – a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.

 

● Medium of Exchange. Money facilitates transactions. Without money, all transactions would have to be conducted by barter, which involves direct exchange of one good or service for another. Money is accepted in all transactions, by sellers and buyers.

 

● Store of Value. In order to be a medium of exchange, money must hold its value over time; that is, it must be a store of value. If money could not be stored for some period of time and still remain valuable in exchange, it would not be adopted as a medium of exchange. As a store of value, money is not unique; many other stores of value exist, such as land, works of art, and even baseball cards and stamps. Money may not even be the best store of value because money depreciates with inflation. But, money is more liquid than most other stores of value because as a medium of exchange, it is readily accepted everywhere. Furthermore, money is an easily transported store of value and is available in a number of convenient denominations.

 

● Unit of account. Money provides a common measure of the value of goods and services being exchanged. Knowing the value or price of a good, in terms of money, enables both the supplier and the purchaser of the good to make decisions about how much of the good to supply and how much of the good to purchase.

 

Power & Money

 

● Traditionally, money has been nothing more and nothing less than a political creation, a promise to pay between two or more parties, enforced to a greater or lesser degree by the power of a state.

 

● Ultimately what makes money valuable is the confidence that it is backed by something.

 

● The US Dollar is backed by political power, law enforcement agencies, and military power.

 

Choose Life & Demand Transparency,

Jim Myers

 

☼ Like the TOV Center Facebook Page by clicking here.

 

☼ Like the Biblical Heritage Center Facebook page. Click Here.

☼ Donate and help fund our work -- Click Here to Donate.