The Imaginary Industry

As far as I can tell, the idea behind money is this: Since we can rarely trade our goods and services for the goods and services of others in a fair and equal trade that nets both parties something they need (think: sports teams trying to trade stars like Vince Carter for “equal value” in draft picks and players), we need a medium, something incredibly fungible that has equal value no matter the trade. We need money.

So it would seem to stand to reason that all the money existent in the world today should be representative of all the goods and services present. But I can’t shake the feeling that people’s concept of money has become so detached from the actual concept that money has become an entity entirely separate from what gives it value: what we have offered others in exchanges. Some of the wealthiest among us have become so by trading money for money and in doing so made money into an industry.


This money industry has created debt, the valuable asset, where debt, what should be avoided when possible, used to reign supreme. In so doing, we have incorporated debt into the very fabric of money so that we are no longer playing with money; we are playing with the promise of money, an asset that can be created at will as long as trust, “old-boys’ club” inclusiveness, or ignorance/ignoring of what money should be is present. Basically, we trade promises for promises, which are parlayed by the traders into goods and services so that we are trading our goods and services for…nothing.

But it ALWAYS comes back to bite us in the ass. What is a bubble bursting? A bubble bursting is when the holders of the promise of money ask for the amount promised in real money and the givers of the promises do not have that money. Undoubtedly, any holder of the promise will have given a promise to another party on the understanding that a promise they hold will eventually become money. But soon, each successive party realizes the promises they hold are nothing. Then, like tiny, unseeable pinpricks, each successive promise disappears. And the bubble bursts.

Is it worth it? Undoubtedly, the creation and inflation of the money industry was economic growth, that seemingly unassailable indicator of prowess, success and societal well-being. It is the new alchemy, creating wealth where the ingredients of wealth did not exist. But the drawbacks occasionally seem…too much. Eventually, everyone realizes the money we thought we had never really existed in the way we thought it did. We earn less, lose jobs, sometimes the country nearly collapses. While once many unexpectedly experience lavishness beyond comprehension and many more find the resources for a few extra nights out, in the end all of us find ourselves utterly, completely, undeniably, screwed.