What is money
You can't eat a twenty-dollar bill
Hold a bill in your hand. It is just paper or plastic.
You cannot eat it. You cannot wear it. You cannot live in it.
You are alone on an island with a suitcase full of cash. There are no shops and no people. What can the money do for you?
Money is a tool. It stands for things you can use.
A bill works only because other people agree to take it. They swap it for food, clothes, or a room.
Tap to see what a bill really is.
The paper barely changes. Its whole value lives in the promise.
“All the money in the world will still leave you starving if there are no goods and services to buy.”
Foundation for Economic Education, 'The Fallacy of Money Is Wealth'
“If I have lots of money, then I am rich in real things.”Tap to reveal
This mixes up money with wealth. Real wealth is the food, homes, and work that money can buy. Money is only the ticket. The goods and services are the prize.
So a bill is a promise printed on paper. Next, we will see how that promise began.