The Colour of Money

I don't really have a firm grasp on the concept of money. I mean, I've had the economic studies classes, I'm aware of theories about markets, industries, supply-and-demand, inflation and all that, and I think I've got a vague inkling of the stock exchange. Still despite all that, I'm unsure how it all works. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't actually.

Money makes the world go round, people often say, and for a large part of my day that is very true. No cash, means no food, no parking, no electricity, no plumbing, no gas, no petrol and so forth. Even if I would stay an entire day at home, I would still spend some 30 euros, just for staying awake.

The major question I've got is the value of money, or more accurately: the reward for something where effort is put in. I'm fully aware that contacting someone with my mobile phone costs money, lest I have to actually travel all the way to that person to say that I thoroughly enjoyed their company. But why is it 0.05 cents per minute? I didn't tell anyone to make diesel prices 1 euro per liter? I sure as hell didn't tell Banana Republic to make me a pair of jeans for 150 EUR. Or that a 50 Cent CD (the rapper, you dolt) is worth 19.99. Or that Ronaldinho gets an x amount of moolah just to appear on a potato chip commercial. And finally nobody told me an hour of my time was worth between 50 and 100 EUR. And yet here we are.

Theory says that the market decides what is sold and what isn't. What prices are conforming to the market, and which don't. What salaries are fair and which are not. And yet: I am part of the market and still I have slim or no control over what a fair price is, other than taking it or leaving it. On a massive scale, that might be choice. On an individual scale it's nothing.

It is supposed to be really simple: things I want or need (good food, nice clothes, housing, SonyEricsson P990, NFL on TV, air) I will gladly pay money for. Things that I don't fancy, but are legally, or physically or socially necessary (diesel fuel for my car, permits, artworks, animals, watches) I don't value as highly, so don't expect me to fork out 2.000 EUR for a Tag Heuer titanium watch or something.

For a lot of things what is placed on the price tag doesn't reflect its worth. And that's why I don't get how money works: A dollar is still a dollar (or roughly 1.25 euros) and you have to fulfil a whole and varied bunch of wants and needs, which every individual values differently. And if people can't get along, suddenly the dollar is inflated, and supposedly you can buy more stuff. Except that my old adage still rings true:

"no matter how much more space you make, it will fill up"

everyone wants a piece of the more-dollar. And they will get it, at the cost of the people who don't care much or are not fast enough to react. Money is just a means to spread the wealth over a larger amount of people, and unfortunately it's a means with just as much strengths as it has weaknesses. It this the best the human race can come up with after several thousand years of bartering?

Nope. Don't get it at all. Unfortunately my ideas don't have much of an audience on a tropical deserted island (apart from Flipper, the cast of Lost and the Madagascar monkeys), so I'm kind of stuck here.