As a young child before the age of three, were you aware of what money was? You were aware of what food was and you were aware that you needed it to stave off of your hunger.  You were aware of what water was and you became quite familiar with poop.  If you wanted more food or water you would first ask or cry. If you were ignored, you would go exploring until you locate something that appeared to be food or water.  Poop was something that was uncomfortable and you would cry or schmear it on the floor.  We always knew how to get our needs met.  As we became a little older we would always hear our parents telling us that we couldn’t have something because there wasn’t enough money. You probably had a hard time understanding this because people around you were taking this and that item home, but you couldn’t because your parents didn’t have enough money. 

Then you learned a game called Monopoly which handed out money to the players. The game continued until one person had all the properties, houses, and hotels, this person would be called the winner, and then you would put all of the money into the bank, it would be redistributed all over again.  You realized that the money had no value, the only value was playing the game with your friends or siblings.  You may have then asked your parents, why can’t we just print our own money like a monopoly game.  Most parents look confused, mumble something about gold or inflation, shaking their heads, and cursing under their breath because they still don’t understand what money is either.  

We may have learned in school that money was originally started as a means of barter or exchange, instead of trading horses or chickens, you could trade a horse for some money, and break the money into smaller parts, and purchase some chickens, a cucumber, and a head of lettuce.  Money was originally shells with holes drilled into them, lumps of metal beaten into a circle. This metal was made out of gold, silver, copper or iron, usually a metal that could be stamped easily.  The images on the coins would identify which country and the monetary value of the coin.  This was much much easier than trading with chickens or hugs.  

Several thousand years ago a young man whose father was a part of the banking cartel in the city realized that these coins had no real value, only a number and symbol stamped on the coin.  This would be like handing your child a piece of paper with the words “ham sandwich” written and another one with “chips” written on it, and another one with the words “milk” written on it for their lunch. To expose their hypocrisy and the criminal activities that they were getting involved in, he defaced their currency.  He did this by either by hitting it with a hammer, or filing off the edges of the coin which transformed it from a coin to a piece of metal.  Promptly he was kicked out of the city, and he moved to another city where he lived in a large cooking pot in the market.  He would carry a lit lantern in the daytime. When people would ask him about the lit lantern in the daytime he would say “I am looking for an honest man.” His name was Diogenes of Sinope. 

People would use metal and jewelry as a method of trade because these were hard to get and it was very difficult to counterfeit. This made them feel secure that the value was more fixed and would change rapidly one day to another.  Because of the high value of the metals and jewels they didn’t want to travel with these, so they would deposit with a person in town with a vault or a place for safe keeping.  The person would then write them a note stating the value of the goods in their possession. This is something that we would call a bank note.  These could be used for trade because the person carrying this note realized that it could be traded for the metal or jewelry stored in the bank's vault.  This facilitated trade. The more trade that is accomplished, the healthier the economy.  As the Silk Road was created, which was really not a road, it was a way to connect merchants from the East to the West. This stimulated economic growth which gave everyone in every economic background an improved lifestyle.   People who did not have raw materials, or could not grow food in their climate were able to trade with others that had special skills, or grow specific food because of altitude or temperature of climate.  The real value that was traded was knowledge and education.  Eventually money was printed/minted by the ruling government and this allowed them to collect taxes for public work projects and for their armies.  When government officials were able to amass large sums of money, they were then able to take care of artists and wise men with new discoveries and new inventions.  This even furthered to improving The Human Condition.  

Money is just a symbol of value that a person possesses. It is like a scorecard, and when you are playing the game, you place symbols on the card which lets everyone around you know how good of a player that you are compared to others. The better the player that you are the higher the score that you have.  The trouble with bartering chickens, tables, or a painting is that at times you may need to divide the chicken, the table or the painting into small parts to make a purchase.  Some things are hard to pass from one person to another.  If you were really hungry, it may be hard for you to pay a library fine with a ham sandwich.  The main thing about money in whatever form that we are using is that we need to feel that it is being regulated or being watched over by someone.  This is the purpose of the bankers to keep track of a scorecard so that we can compare our value to the value of others.  

An accountant will figure out how much value is going into the project and how much value is coming out of a project. This value can be figured out with printed money and written checks or notes, or electronic data that goes from one computer bank to another.  Money also needs to move from one person to another to add value. You can have twenty million dollars under your mattress, but if you are living in a tarpaper shack and eating food from the garbage bin this money is adding little value to your life.  You must give the money to other people that will be happy to give you better food, living quarters, and a toilet. 

Money is like water or air. It requires circulation for it to be beneficial.  If you are constantly take in water and never pee then you will die. If you inhale forever and never exhale you will die.  Your body could be flowing full of blood, but if it is not flowing from one part to another, you will die.  Your blood as it moves through your body is like a trade route.  It goes to the lungs where it gives away carbon dioxide, then it picks up oxygen, then it goes to the intestinal tract where it gives away oxygen, picks up carbon dioxide, and it picks up sugar. It goes through the body distributes energy gets rid of garbage in the intestines and kidneys, then it goes to the heart and then it goes back to the lungs!

Like blood, money has to be moving for it to be of value.  Money will move from one city to another, picking up certain items, leaving other items, leaving this flow of money that we call the GDP or as we `call the Gross Domestic Product. The GDP is the amount of money that is moved from one hand to another.  If a dollar bill moves through ten people’s hands, the GDP is now ten. The GDP doesn’t rate how much money is in the system, it measures how much money is moving through the system.  

Many people say that we shouldn’t really even need money, and they are correct.  As the most valuable thing in our life is air which is basically free.  The next thing that is more valuable is a drink of water and it is pretty easy to get a drink of water.  Lastly that is most important is food, which I found grows on trees or crawls on the ground.  I have also found that I can trade food for money, so my parents lied to me when they said that “Money does grow on trees.” 

The reason that human beings need money or a scorecard is because of The Human Condition.  You may have noticed children and young animals are always playing games to see who is the strongest and who can dominate over the other. We use these contests to establish our value over other people. In acquiring more money than everyone else we can do several things. 1) We can keep money or take money from others.. 2) We can work really hard and collect as much money as we possibly can.. Or 3) We can use the money that we have to benefit the lives of others. When we use money to improve the lives of others, then they can become more productive and society will benefit, and everyone’s lives will improve.  

When we are helping others out, they look up to us and admire us, which helps us feel good about ourselves.  

Money is not like a bag of marbles, or a sack of flour.  Many people think that we are going to run out of money.  This is impossible.  No more than you could run out of water or air, which could happen under certain circumstances, but it is not a general problem.  People were thinking that humans and animals could not have been on the planet for 65 million years because they would have consumed all of the water on the planet and the planet would be completely dry. 

They do not seem to understand the water cycle. When you drink a glass of water, then you pee it into the toilet, this goes to the river, this flows to the sea, it evaporates into the sky and clouds, it goes into the mountains, condenses into rain, which flows to the river, heads to your house where you drink it again.  

Money works the same way. People will give you money because of the value that you have.  You will then give the money to other people because of the value that they have.  This could happen a million times before the same dollar bill comes back to you.  

Again, the only value that money has is for you to show your value compared to other people, the things that you do for others, your worth to other people. This could be physical work. It could be emotional value, it could be just to help others get a good feeling.  All of these things could take place without the money, but then you would be missing your scorecard, then other people would be aware of your value in society. 

In later chapters we will be talking about each of these aspects of money in more detail so that we can understand what money really is. Why we need it, what we do with it, and do we really need it.  

2. As you grew older did you notice that adults were always worried?
3. As you became a teenageer, you were aware that having money was important to attract in a mate, or to look for in a mate.  
4. Later in life as you were in young adulthood, you understood that making more money helped other people respect you more. 
5. As  a young child you became confused when playing monopoly or video games where there were coins made of gold to pick up. 
6. Did you realize that the money in monopoly was similar to the money that you used to buy things at the store. 
7. You may have been told that the money that you buy things at the store with is regulated by the government, whereas the monopoly was regulated by the rules of the board game.
8.   You may have realized that points on a credit card or coupon clippings could be used for money. Yet these were not regulated by the government. 
9. The questions we will answer in this book are “what is money?” “how does it work?” and “why do humans need it?” 
10. The history of money consists of sea shells, rocks, and notes. 
11. Money was used by the ruling class to gather taxes and give out as credit and kudos to their friends. 
12. Storage of money and the story of valuable objects in a vault. a note is passed to the person for the value of that object. 
13. A note or an object of 100 kudos would be rewritten for 101 kudo notes.  
14. Money can be used for good or evil purposes, just as science can be used for good or bad.
15. Money can be used as a means of evening out the value of services. 
16. One person may have chickens, another cows, and the third be a carpenter.
17. The carpenter cannot eat the furniture, but they can make a trade with notes that people respect as value for goods or services rendered. 
18. Money can be in the form of paper, metal, electronic data, 
19. Accountants figure how much is going into and compare that to how much is going out.
20. In the body that produces too much heat, it must give up some of its water to dissappate its heat. 
21. THere needs to be a balance to what is going into a body, compared to what is going out. 
22. If water is only created and not going out, you will die, or you will drown. 
23. If food is only coming in and not going out, you will die of constipation.
24. If water is only going out and not coming in and not going out you will die of dehydration.
25. Just like with money a flow is needed in order for society to be healthy. 
26. The government regulates the flow of money in an economy to maintain its health. 
27. If you use a metal as a form of money, the metal can be divided up so small, and it will slow the health of a society down.
28. This is why societies began to create notes. Notes still require ink and paper, but it was a way to regulate commerce.
29. Today writing notes becomes way to slow even with a printing press.
30. With billions of people and opportunities, a computer can record information a million times faster than a piece of paper.

1. It can be used for good or it can be used for bad is completely true, but how do you increase your probability that it will be used for good to insure the most good.  
   1. What is it that you want to see humanity doing with the planet they live on
      1. More wars?
      2. More meaningless work?
      3. Lonely families?
   2. Then at first glance the market that we live in is simply cutthroat?
2. Because of The Human Condition humans benefit from keeping track of where they stand. 
   1. Money is a tool to make this happen
      1. like kudos
      2. like hugs and kisses
      3. like points on super mario brothers
3. Many people economic theory