As time has progressed, mankind has become corrupted by greed and the desire to achieve wealth. This reminds me of when I was a child, I would hide my money in a can located in my tree house and even though I never showed anyone my hiding spot and never spent it, I still had a feeling of achievement. The world of money has come a long way as well as the way money is handled and dispersed throughout the cities. People in the world today deposit all their paper money into banks, which are run by computers. A simple figure on a screen is now the world’s giant carved stones of the islanders of Yap.

When looking at the islanders of Yap, we can see a much simpler version of how the entire world operates today. The islanders achieve status based on their rock carvings similar to the way the people of today achieve status based on money earned. The thought of this is shocking, yet makes sense. The islanders floated to an island and sculpted giant wheels, much how we in the US go to a job and perform a certain skill. Some might say that it isn’t fair that one person could just get a bigger boat, thus being able to take on a bigger rock. However, it resembles the process of how a Japan leader “ordered the Bank of Japan to fire up its printing presses without limit and has promised to pump 12 trillion yen ($134 billion) into public works and other government projects.” More rocks could be brought to the island, just like more money can simply be printed. Another instance where a form of currency was simply created was when the Brazilians switched to the “Bitcoin” in efforts to save the economy. The new form of “e-money” saved a country simply because the Brazilians applied their faith in the new system.

Americans put faith in the value of a piece of paper, just like the Islanders of Yap put their faith in a giant limestone rock. We find the islanders of Yap weird yet we model so much of our economy much like theirs, indirectly of course. In my life, the abstract concept of money seems to be surreal. How can we trust something that is simply printed and created out of thin air? However, I still feel accomplished when I store some pieces of paper in my tin can.