Money controls our lives more than anything else. It decides where we are going and why we are going there. We go to work to get paid, so we can go to school.  We pay for it so we can get a better job, where we get paid more. To keep from this confusing everyone, money is important. Money is called different things but for the most part it boils down to the same thing. It is something that has worth for something else. This is still true for the people of the island of Yap, but the Yap have a different perception. These people are doing things right in this world. To them, money is not some paper that runs their everyday lives for things in which the Yap don’t see the true meaning for. To the Yap, money is gigantic rocks, which is possibly the greatest idea ever.

The people on the Planet Money Team broadcast said some would think these people are crazy, which is completely wrong. These people used what resources were around to make something that needed to exist.  The aspect in which the Planet Money Team mention’s numerous times is the fact that the rock money does not move when purchased.  That’s exactly how money is in bank accounts. The money is not sitting in a pile in a basement. The fact that these people respect the system and believe in it; so much so that these huge stone coins just sit in places even the sea. The Yap know who own them and it is incredible that with such little structure there is still that much respect. There would be no stealing in this civilization of money. How could anyone possibly take it? No one would because they respect who owns each coin. The passing of money has become so easy when its paper or on a computer that it has lost the value to which it really is. Money to them was a real thing that anyone could see, unlike the Bitcoin which doesn’t have a central bank or even a financial institution (Renaut). The Yap have a greater understanding of the worth of an item than we ever will.

The Yap would find our culture today as more bizarre than we ever found theirs. We rely on paper that is backed up by a mineral that we have never even seen; we just assume it’s there.  Almost no American has gone into a bank and has asked to see all their money in the bank. We just assume it exists somewhere. That is something the Yap could never understand. The Yap see their money; it’s everywhere, it’s outside, and it’s huge. We hold paper money higher than anything and in the end its still paper. Money is based on trust; our trust is that our money backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. Which seems worth less then rocks; their system is just cleaner cut than ours. This does not mean that someone’s system is better. The people of Yap had a less convenient way of paying for things but the Yap see what is being exchanged because it is a huge rock in front of their face. The reason all of these countries, such as Japan, are going bankrupt and have to dump 10.3 Trillion yen into the economy is because money is spent like it has no meaning these days (Krugman). Money has become a card with almost no responsibility. When we use our credit cards, we don’t actually see what we are giving the person at the counter; we just see the item. The islanders of Yap would know what they are giving up, thus respecting it more. The islanders of Yap may be bizarre to us, but their perception of money and value is more genuine than ours ever was or will be.

Sources
Renaut, Anne. “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo News. N.p., 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

Krugman, Paul. “The Curious Case of Japan’s Economic Stimulus.” Truthout.         Krugman & Co, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.