Howdy Struggledorks, Bill the Blogger at attention and ready to rock Blog 13. This week we tackle the tip of the Iceberg on "Money Cycles". 

When I think of Money; I think of cash in my wallet or a numeric balance on my bank. But is this what Money actually is? In reality I don't think so. The thought of exchanging a piece of paper or swiping a piece of plastic to receive anything ranging from water and food; to a television or a car is quite bizarre when looked at objectively. So what is Money? 

Johns Defintion of Money: MONEY: is an exchanged system that stores TIME and ENERGY and exchanges money for something else. The system that is created both allows to store and retrieve at different points in time. 

For me this took some time to wrap my head around. To bring it to relative terms I had to re-arrange Johns wording a touch.

Bills Definition of Money: Money: is an exchange system that stores Time and Energy into a Credit. This Credit is represented by a numeric system which is ONLY valued by the implicit nature of an entire society (or world) using this Credit system. This Credit can then be saved and retrieved at different times. 

Originally this Credit came in the form of intrinsic commodities; Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze. Money then evolved into Paper representations; representing Credits of Intrinsic Commodities which can be exchanged.  This then evolved further to simply "Fiat" money; Paper Money which was not backed by a Commodity. It was backed by the goodwill of those handling it (in most circumstances entire nation). I remember reading that a US $100.00 Bill cost 11 cents to produce. Go figure. 

But now we come to our most recent Credit Form. Money represented as a Number on a screen at your local ATM. Volumes of Money accessible through a plastic card. 

This thought train is where Johns definition really started making sense to me. Money at one point represented a physical value. Money now is an abstract concept; one designed to specifcally value Time and Energy into a Numeric System. This value can then be retrieved through exchanging within a system that accepts the percevied value of "Money". 

So when John makes his point of " I would have traded two pigs for a chocolate cake at some point, then I realized this was NOT a good exchange." what he's really saying is the chocolate cake takes nowhere near the amount of Time or Energy to create; and does not output nearly as much value as two pigs do. This is not good value. But at some level he's got two pigs and really wants a chocolate cake. He could spend his time negotiating a deal for the cake. Or he could sell his pig to its value; then exchange for the cake. This is WHY money is of value. It is designed to minimize time; while trading less space. As Fuller would say it "More with Less'.

Now for me at one point I really had the feeling, "Gee wizz, money is this evil thing. All it does is pollute our system of thinking.". What I didn't see was the value money created. Growing up with it my whole life; I never thought "If I want to buy a car or a house, and didn't have money in its simple form (Cash or Card the Money of my time); I would have to cart masses of Gold to make my exchange.". This is truly what we do not see in our everyday exchanges. 

What a truly beautiful system. And what John says genuinely illustrates the point:

1. I store my Time and Energy

2. I retrieve that Money at a point that suits my requirements

3. This allows me to Exchange what  iwant

4. At different points of if I require

5. Allowing easy decision making

6. Reducing additional cost on Time and Energy