This week we read a speech titled “Fransisco’s Money Speach” as well as an exert from a book called “The Money Confusion” and a chapter from “The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized”. I actually found the readings to be very interesting and gave me a lot to think of in terms of where our money came from, how to view our current economy, and how we as a society decide what things have value.
I have always been curious how we as people decided that a piece of paper holds wealth, or why a diamond is so expensive. Because without out the human mind, these things hold no value, value is a construct that we created. I think this thought process of mine is why I enjoyed the exert from “Money Confusion” so much, particularly when Tammy J. wrote about how humanity gave the dollar value.
The dollar would be convertible to gold at a fixed rate of$35 an ounce while the other participating nations would peg their currencies to the dollar, thus achieving currency stability.(Tammy,9,2020)
Reading this article was the first time I ever learned where and how our currency came from. I knew gold was historically used for currency widely around the world and seeing that we actually had a set measurement for how much something was made the idea of a currency make so much more sense. I also did not realize that at one point in our history that the currencies of the world were so alike that we had to need for the currency market. A few years ago I traveled to Peru and thought it was such a hassle to do the conversions and I remember thinking that it would be so much easier if the world had the same rates, and now here I am learning that we did! This article was mainly about how we got our system of currency for today, but something else that was discussed was what some economists thought was the reason that the United States was able to be pulled out of the Great Depression. Some economists believe that because we diverted from the gold standard, as mentioned in the quote above, we were able to be pulled out of the Great Depression. Tammy, the author of this particular article goes on to say how these economists could not be any more wrong in their statement, because really the detachment from the gold standard did not pull us out of the Great Depression the war did that, and all it really achieved was creating the currency market that is so big today that it is nearly impossible to travel to any foreign nation and not find someone to convert your money.
For the most part, I did not like the Money Speech it was very wordy and I think it could have been shortened to get Rand A.’s point across better because it was a very interesting point it just got a little lost in the words. Something I found very interesting from this speech was when the author said that “capitalism has failed when the hard work of others hurts the poor and benefits the wealthy” or something along those lines. I thought this was very interesting because as a society we have reached this point. As much as the older generations just want to call younger generations lazy this just is not the case. It does not matter how much we try in this age our economy has gone so downhill that it is not realistic for the younger generations to be able to retire some of us may not even be able to buy a home or start a family due to the current economy. I have a friend who is a type one diabetic and because of her condition she will never be able to work in the field she is truly passionate about, teaching. She simply would not be able to live on that salary.
The main point of the speech, however, was to discuss money being “the root of all evil” Rand spends the speech discussing topics that contradict this well-known phrase. Rand uses many comparisons to other inanimate objects to get the point across that things are not evil it is how they are used. And he made some excellent points such as,
So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.(Rand,paragraph 12,2002)
I think this argument is the same as weapons are not evil bad people just have easy access to them because looking at things logically money does not have a brain or will or is even conscious so therefore it is neither good nor bad it just is.
Works Cited
R, A. (2002, August 30). “Francisco’s Money Speech” by Ayn Rand | Capitalism Magazine. Https://Www.capitalismmagazine.com/. https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/
Tamny, J. (2022). The Money Confusion.
