In Francisco’s Money Speech (2020, p. 2), he begins by proposing a rhetorical question on if money is the root of all evil. Beginning his speech this way prepares the rest of argument on why money is not the root of evil, but rather stems from the person. In pages two and three, Francisco d’Anconia explains that money is made by effort and is exchanged through mutual benefit. In order to make money, you must put in hard work; this is essentially value for value. Money has value and is used in exchanged for other things that we see valuable, but therefore is only made from our value, which is our time and effort. Following this section, he goes on to discuss whether money brings happiness or corruption.
Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek (Rand, 2020, p. 4).
Growing up, we have all been told that money does not buy you happiness. Sometimes we think that money defines who we are: if we have more money, then we can buy whatever we want. Money is a symbol in society that shows that we have made it, but if money is all we have, then are we truly living life? Like the quote says, money cannot bring us joy if we have no idea what we want. We may have money, but if we do not have a purpose, then we most likely will not satisfy our happiness. Another point that he makes in his speech is when he asks if money corrupts you, or if you corrupt money (Rand, 2020, p. 4). Money is just an object that we attribute value to. It cannot corrupt us, but rather we can use it for corruption. We put wealth on a pedestal, and when it is gone, we act like we have nothing. This stems to the “American Dream” that he mentions later in his speech.
If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose because it contains all the others – the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money’ (Rand, 2020, p. 6).
We think that money is what makes life worth living. We basically live to work, even if we believe that is not the case. So why do we live the “American dream” if it really isn’t a dream? One final point that is made in this speech is that money really destroys us. We fight so hard to earn our money and protect it, but others come in and take it easily. Rand (2020, p. 5) mentions that those who do not have courage or high virtues are bait to looters because they do not know to protect their money because they think they are fine. Money takes the best of humans and creates a world that is constantly fighting to stay on top, so in conclusion, money is not evil, but brings out evil.
In chapter two of Bylund’s book, The Seen, The Unseen, and the Unrealized, he explains how prices came about. He perfectly described this by introducing The Price is Right (Bylund, 2016, p. 15). On the show, contestants must name the price of an object, which attributes to what they value the product to be. In the rest of his examples, he follows what he talks about in chapter one when exchanges occur because both sides find value in the trading product. I believe that Bylund makes a very good argument for how prices were created and the how the money system began. When looking to buy products, we often first look at the price. Depending on how much we need or want the product, we may be willing to spend more for it. Otherwise, if we think the price is too high and we do not value the product at that level, we tend to move on without purchasing it.
In other words, money is useful – that is, we consider it valuable – because we know that we can offer it as payment for goods that more directly satisfy our wants (Bylund, 2016, p. 17).
This quote explains that money is valuable because it can be used to buy us products that satisfy our wants and needs. When we do not agree with the price, we do not buy the product because the value of the money is worth more than the product itself. Prices are created by how consumers react to the products and what they value it. Bylund (2016, p. 21) also mentions how consumers try to maximize their utility when exchanging goods. If the exchange does not bring us more value than the alternative, then we are better off not buying the product. Bylund explained this exchange very well, putting the value of money in perspective to how prices were created due to our preferences.
In addition to the chapter by Bylund, Tamny’s chapter about stable money also discusses how money is just a value to obtain other products of value. Stable money was created so that everyone would have the same understanding of the value, making exchanges equal.
Stable money as a measure of value doesn’t ensure that every trade will yield better or equal to what was produced, nor does it ensure that every investment will yield positive returns – but it does ensure that we won’t lose value for using money to buy, sell, lend, borrow, or buy and sell shares (Tamny, 2022, p. 35).
This quote accurately describes the use of money. Some things that we buy do not live up to the value that we may have paid for it, but at least we are all on the same page when using money. Though we may value money more than the product, stable money has the same value for everyone, ensuring that we know what we are paying for. The Bitcoin reference by Tamny (2022, p. 36) helps explain this more because it is not stable. When someone pays in Bitcoin, it is just a temporary placeholder before the final payment that does not allow you to know what you are getting before. There is no set value that everyone can agree on like money.
Money is the quiet measure around which prices are formed (Tamny, 2022, p. 38).
I like this perspective of the meaning of money because while everything is measured in money, it has a value that everyone just mutually agrees with without it being discussed. Prices are formed from the value we attribute to money compared to the value we attribute to the product. Money is just a silent agreement to which we add value to. Tamny’s last point that he mentioned in this chapter is that money is used to facilitate movement in the economy (2022, p. 41). This is essentially what makes money what we know today. Like discussed earlier, we purchase products that are valuable to us with in money, which is valuable to the seller who receives it. The seller can then use that money to produce more and buy things of value to him or her. This creates the market economy of exchanges with the use of stable money that everyone knows.
Money is simply an object that we attribute value to in order to keep exchanges in the economy flowing. With the stable money system, we can all agree on the same value rules, but how we use that money in reference to the value of the products we buy with it changes depending on personal preferences. The power money has on society ultimately hurts individuals because it turns us against each other in greed. We spend so much time working to make money that we do not always see what we already have. However, money does help to satisfy our needs and wants while furthering the economy.
Rand, A. (2020, April 13). "Francisco's money speech" by Ayn Rand. Capitalism Magazine. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/Links to an external site.
Bylund, P. L. (2016). Chapter 2: The Price Is Right. In Seen, the unseen, and the unrealized: How regulations affect our everyday lives (pp. 15–26). essay, Lexington Books.
Tamny, J. (2022). Chapter 2: The Meaning of Stable Money. In The money confusion: How illiteracy about currencies and inflation sets the stage for the Crypto Revolution (pp. 29–41). essay, All Seasons Press.
