Currency is one of the oldest things created in the entire world. It can be an object, an IOU, or just a piece of paper. Knowing nothing about economics, I started reading up on sources explaining different concepts of currency and now I have a much more constructed idea on the subject.
A broadcast by the NPR Explained the economy of an island called Yap. The islanders believed that limestone rocks made 250 miles away carried wealth. The rocks don’t even have to be seen or moved as we learned when one of the biggest rocks ever created was lost at sea but still carried wealth. The concept sounds ludicrous until you learn what Brazil did with their economy.
In an audio file titled “The Invention of Money,” the narrator explains how Brazil climbed out of a major economic disaster by using fake currency to stimulate the real economy. Once the economy stabilized, they created a new currency which was easier to manage. Since then, Brazil’s economy has prospered, unlike ours.
Hypothetically, if someone asked me my value two days ago, I would add up the money in my wallet and bank account. After reading, I don’t believe I own a single ounce of anything that isn’t paper, copper, or nickel. This is because America runs on a fiat standard, a non-physical standard. We literally cannot measure our wealth.
According to the Federal Reserve’s website, there is currently $1.23 trillion in circulation as of the 15th of January, 2014. Of that, $1.18 trillion is in federal notes. That means $50 billion is not even real, it’s credit. If we could abolish credit once it is all paid back and base our economy back on a physical standard, the stock market is suddenly less prone to crashing again and we can start paying back our debt. Currently, our debt is like us trying to dig ourselves out of a hole in the ground that we keep throwing more dirt in. It’s a cycle we can’t hope to get out of unless one side out-powers the other.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
Professor, not sure if i understood what the objective of the essay was. feel free to tell me if i went off topic, especially towards the end. Thanks.
~Vinny
Feedback provided, —DSH
Please don’t textspeak, Vinny, even in replies. Capitalize your “I”s and the first letter of your sentences. It’s good practice. Thanks.
Sorry professor, I will from now on.
Professor, if you can leave FEEDBACK, i would appreciate it.
Feedback provided, —DSH
OK, Vinny, here we go.
P1. To avoid arguments with creationists, it would be better to describe currency as one of humanity’s oldest inventions, Vinny. See the difference? I know you’re making a “soft start,” but why not make a bigger point every chance you get, like: Currency must be essential to human success since it was invented just before (or just after, I’m not sure which) agriculture, every culture uses a form of it, and it has replaced barter.
In your Rewrite, you’ll abandon your personal reflections in favor of more focused analysis on a specific thesis, so the notes about you reading up and have a more constructed idea will not appear.
P2. Rocks aren’t made 250 miles away in our story, Vinny. Very pointedly, they are quarried, hewn, shaped into massive disks, smoothed, polished until they gleam, and fitted with holes to accept poles with which to roll them; and therein lies their ability to represent wealth. Without a bit of background, only readers who have read the story or heard the broadcast will understand your comments. The responsibility to brief them is yours. FFG banned 2nd person.
P3. I love the brevity of your summary and its purposefulness, Vinny. It misses an opportunity to indicate that no currency is more “real” or “fake” than another. Since it does, it’s not clear what is “ludicrous” about the Brazilian situation. Also, I don’t think Brazil’s economy needed stimulation. By “stabilized” you mean, runaway inflation was tamed.
P4. Be very careful with your terminology. Your value is your studiousness, integrity, and compassion, among other fine characteristics. You might mean your “net worth” here. Your point about owning nothing but symbols of worth is important and fine, but is it correct? You own a laptop, which because of its utility is a better indicator of worth than those coins in your pocket. Yes, America runs on a fiat standard, but that’s not why we can’t measure our wealth. The marketplace sets the value of money, not the government. If Apple stops accepting your dollars, the government is powerless to impose value on them.
P5. When you say “in circulation,” you’re talking about physical notes and coins, I believe. The amount of credit extended is magnitudes more than the $50 billion, Vinny. You’re onto a fine thesis here about the distinction between trading hard currency and extending credit, but it will take a lot of discipline to explain it well. And I’m not sure it’s based on “sides.”
I doubt you’re suggesting that we actually return to an economy of pure cash. Maybe you are, but it would mean waiting until we have earned and saved $350,000 to buy a desirable home in a middle-class neighborhood, among other outcomes, unless I misunderstand you.
You’re not obligated to revise these drafts, Vinny, but do use the notes to help you focus your thesis for the Rewrite.
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