originally written by Peag Blog on 2024-01-29.

What is money?

Everybody uses money. Cash, coins, cards, electronic. Its such a fundamental technology that we don't even tend to consider it as tech. We simply earn it, spend it, and save some if we can.

Most of us don't ever stop to think about what money is. That is, not it until it breaks, until the debit card is empty, or inflation destroys purchasing power. Then we scramble, trying to understand what just happened. We may jump to blaming foreigners, ideological opponents, or the other political party, when in reality is simply that our money is broken.

So, what is money?

Money is one of humanity's oldest social technologies, so fundamental to our lives that it can be hard to see---kind-of like asking a fish to describe water. But, look closely: money is a tool for doing, a mirror of our treasuring, a measure to talk about value, and a way to coordinate human action.

a tool for doing | heart

Our hearts purpose to do things. Money is often a tool we use to do whatever we've decided to do. The vast majority of us, even when cooking dinner at home, paid for the groceries with money. When you need new clothes, do you make them or buy them? What about your kids' education? Whether you buy books for school or homeschool supplies, pay college tuition, or hire a private tutor, you probably use money to give your kids an education.

We use money to secure what we need as individuals and families: food, shelter, health-care, education, entertainment, communications. Money serves as a tool we use to accomplish what we've decided to do.

a mirror of our treasuring | soul

However, money is more than just a useful tool. It often becomes an object of treasure, the thing we desire, or we use it to buy the things we treasure. When this happens, rather than our mastering money, money masters us. Like a mirror reflecting one's image, money shows us what we treasure deep-down. Police and investigative journalists know that you will eventually find the truth if you follow the money. If you want to see what a person really loves, look at their wallet or bank account.

Think of Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge before his transformation: his stingeiness showed the depths of his cold-hearted misers' isolation. Contrast him with the magi in Matthew's gospel, who embarked on a long expensive journey to bring costly gifts to a newborn child-king. Money is a mirror that reveals what we love deep down.

measuring value | mind

Money is our social technology for measuring value. We're all familiar with prices. But why do they change? Why is a merchant happy to sell, their customer happy to buy, and both people think they got the better deal? Because we each value things subjectively, and we use money as our common language for talking about value. The woman who buys an apple values it more than the cash she pays the seller, and the guy who grew the apple values the apple less than the cash he receives. As long as neither person is being coerced to buy or sell at a given price---i.e., if they're all transacting freely---each person gains from the transaction.

Prices communicate information. Fredrick Hayek got a Nobel Prize for explaining this. Prices signal to entrepreneurs and businesses where they can meet needs expressed through the price, and if those businesses can provide that good or service below the market price, they make money on the exchange. In this sense, money is our societal language for talking about value. While money isn't the only way to value things, it is one of the primary ways across society that we measure value.

This aspect of money is sometimes tricky for us moderns to understand. For the past century or so, most of us have lived in societies where central banks and commercial banks create money out of nothing via loans. What this has meant is that the overall quantity of monetary units has increased faster than real economic productivity, which looks like rising prices from within our economic and monetary system.

For example, a house built in the 1970s may have sold for $30,000; and the same house today may command $280,000. Assuming the house was well-maintained and the neighborhood hadn't changed much, is the house really worth more? Its still a house, providing shelter to someone in the same spot it was 50 years ago. Or has the money simply lost a whole lot of its purchasing power? If we measured the same house using ounces of gold as our monetary measure, we would probably see its price as far more stable over the long-term. Using a money where the overall quantity of money in the economy can constantly change is similar to a carpenter trying to frame a house with a tape measure that changed the length of its unit of measure each day.

coordinating people | strength

Finally, money is a way to coordinate human action. Have you had a project to do that's bigger or more complex than your skill set or time? When the plumbing breaks, do you take time to learn plumbing yourself (some do!) or do you call a plumber and pay him to fix it? When your computer breaks, do you fiddle with it yourself or call tech support? When a large household has to move, they could do all the work themselves, or they could easily convince strangers to help them by hiring a moving company, using money to coordinate a lot of extra experienced hands for a big move.

Money can multiply one's strength and ability to coordinate people. Think of any large project people plan together, like building a house, starting a school, or running a business. In all likelihood, if more than one person is involved, one will use money to coordinate the actions of a variety of people to achieve a common goal. Even when organizing volunteers, one needs money for supplies and other costs. Often, if sufficient funding isn't the, the project won't even get started. As Jesus of Nazareth once said, "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?" (Luke 14:28), for fear of being mocked if one starts such a project without the means to finish it.

Conclusion

Jesus point with the tower-building story was about the cost of following him as a disciple. How we understand and use money has direct bearing on how, if Christian, one follows Jesus. We've seen that money is a tool for purposeful doing, a mirror of our treasuring, a measure to talk about value, and a way to coordinate human action. Those categories all touch on discipleship, the way Christians walk with Jesus.

Jesus evoked those four categories of human action when he answered a question regarding the most important of God's commandments, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 10:29-31)

Money touches our hearts' purposes, our soul's treasure, our mind's economic calculations, and the strength in which we can coordination others actions with our ends. One's understanding of money provides endless opportunities to walk as disciples of Jesus.

May the Lord give you wisdom in your use of money, that heart, soul, mind, and strength you would use this tool to display love for God and for your neighbor.

Originally published at block 828002 at
Framing the question.