Most people see money as a necessity and need in their life. Most people’s lives revolve around money and the desire for money. But in essence, money is just an “idea”, that we see is more important than it really is. Generally, I saw money as an object that we use to buy things and never thought about the true meaning behind it. Most of my money goes to food, but what if there was a different way of going about it? I reviewed the multiple sources for this assignment, NPR broadcast “The Invention of Money,” Milton Friedman’s article “Island of Stone Money,” and a four minute podcast of a conversation between David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein about “The Island of Stone Money.” After reading, and listening to these, I gained a different perspective into money. 

Starting off with “The Island of Stone Money” podcast, in which the people of “Yap,” used “stone money,” which are basically just large stones. The city of Yap didn’t have silver or gold, but explorers discovered limestone. This limestone was carved into “huge, large disks.” These explorers carried these stones on bamboo boats, and when boats improved, they brought larger stones. The people needed value in their currency and adopted this “stone money.” These stones are mostly used for big purchases, and since the “money” is too hard to carry, one day the money would be yours and the next day, everyone would know it was someone else’s. Kestenbaum also mentions at the end of the podcast, “we still use stone money today, if I write you a check it’s just digits in your bank account.” The Island of Yap needed currency, and made their “idea” of money. 

The NPR broadcast caught my attention when touching on the topic of “online banking.” When my mom is depositing from the bank or into my account, or even doing the bills or taxes online. This “idea” of money is just being passed around and passed around. But where is the money actually? It’s just an idea. Say you are at a job and you choose to get paid by direct deposit. Your money never actually is present in your hands. However, in your head you know you’ve just been paid. That “money” is just lying in your account. We go crazy over this money, and our world  revolves around this. The people of Yap are not much different than us. They just use stone and we use paper. They may even think our “idea” of money is insane, just as you may think the same for them. 

Money for us is also present in many different ways. I just mentioned online banking, but other ways include stocks, bitcoin, crypto, and the recently new NFT’s. People are using money to buy “pictures’, in hopes of them becoming exclusive, and them being able to sell for an immense amount of profit. Our idea of money has expanded so far. Who would’ve thought we’d be paying for pictures of the most random objects. Each superbowl ticket this year even came with an exclusive NFT. Crypto and bitcoin are not reliant on a bank or government to hold and maintain the money. These values however can dip at any time, but people still continue to take risks because of how big they can become. This became so big that star NFL wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr. even took his recent salary with the Los Angeles Rams in bitcoin. The longtime “State Farm Arena” in Los Angeles, home to the Los Angeles Lakers, and Clippers recently became “Crypto Arena.”

Milton Friedman’s article “Island of Stone Money,” Friedman furthers the conversation of money and even goes on to call it a “myth.” Germans acquired the land of Yap which they marked “fei, with black cross paint.” Friedman states in the beginning of the article, “Its officials had difficulty inducing the residents to repair the footpaths until they resorted to the desperate expedient of taking possession of many of the stones by marking them with a cross in black paint, to be removed when the paths were repaired.”

Also a situation that occured between the U.S and France. “In 1932-33, the Bank of France feared that the U.S. would not stick to the gold standard at the traditional price of $20.67 an ounce of gold.” It asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to convert dollars that it had in the U.S. into gold. In response, officials of the Federal Reserve Bank went to their gold vault, put in separate drawers the correct amount of gold, and put a label or mark on them indicating that they belonged to the French. Friedman mentions, “Is the one practice really more rational than the other?” Who had the better “idea” of money? Money could essentially be anything and maybe our paper money isn’t as ordinary as one may think. 

Seeing these sources furthered my knowledge of money and currency. I never saw money the way I see it now. I just saw it as normal to use my paper money to buy things I wanted, and never thought about the certain ways money is present, and how it can be used. The people of Yap used stone as money. At first I thought they were crazy but gaining more knowledge showed maybe they aren’t. Money is an idea and can be anything essentially. Our practice of money could have been through rocks if we really wanted to and if it was brought up that way. However, no matter what your currency is, people will always desire it. 

References

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. 1991. https://miltonfriedman.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/215061/full

Goldstein, J., & Kestenbaum, D. (2010, December 10). The island of Stone Money. NPR.  Retrieved February 14, 2022,

The invention of money. This American Life. 19 February, 2018. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money