In Richard Davies’ article for the New York Times, “The Fiction That Makes the World Go Round,” he sees money as a way to defraud a person after gaining their trust, “an i.o.u. printed on cheap material that promises the holder nothing but more paper money.” Money is made up. People came up with the idea to make a piece of paper something with intrinsic value, but at the end of the day it’s just cheap material that we put a price tag on. Davies states that the earliest records of money demonstrate how cultures transition from monetary systems with inherent value such as salt or coins made up of precious metal to paper money, which is valuable because it is a tool for exchanging commodities and services. This exemplifies that money is fictional, the material slowly degrading itself over time and yet our imagination still stays the same. That money determines social standing. 

Reference

Davies, R. (2020, September 8). The fiction that makes the World Go Round. The New York Times. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/books/review/money-the-true-story-of-a-made-up-thing-jacob-goldstein.html