Everything is Worth More Than Money
November 1st, 2008 by Terence Gillespie
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Looking at the number of money related articles on this site you’d never suspect that I think everything ever purchased is worth more than the money used purchased it.
When you purchase something you give money to get what you want. Why would you give up something more valuable than you’re getting? The answer is: You wouldn’t, you haven’t and probably never will.
If money was the most valuable thing on earth then you’d keep it no matter what you could purchase with it. Since everything ever purchased was bought with some form of money then everything was considered more valuable than the money used to pay for it.
Anything man values can be exchanged for money. The money then becomes mans means of exchange for obtaining the values he needs. This was one of the conclusions of my article, Where Does Money Come From? And the conclusion of the article Why is Gold Money? was that Gold is the best place to store money.
Gold and silver (And to a lessor extent platinum and palladium) are the only substances on earth that have every quality needed to function as a medium of exchange or money. The very fact that these substances possess all these qualities makes them valuable in and of themselves. Indeed, something without inherent value is not eligible to be true money.
Since precious metals do have inherent value it’s ironic to say that everything else is more valuable. But, at one time or another everything was and will be considered more valuable than the means of exchange to obtain it. This is because the very nature of money is to function as a tool for mankind to enable three functions:
- The exchange of goods and services
- Investment
- Division of Labor
And these three things are also more valuable than the money, itself.
Man is always willing to part with money if what he wants to purchase is valued highly enough. Money is the means to man’s ends and rarely an end, in itself. Man’s ends are whatever sustains his life in the most optimal way to support his values. Money is only the most desirable end, in itself if:
- The man has no values he regards as higher than money
- All his values have already been fulfilled.
Only then would money be more valuable than what it can buy.
If a man has no values he regards as higher than money then he’s probably a miserable human being. This would be a guy who has a million dollars in the bank and still fishes for food out of a dumpster. A less extreme case would be a guy who will embarrass himself in social situations to save less than $5.
A man who has fulfilled all his values is either dead, does not value very much, or, has achieved a rare level of wealth. It should be everyone’s goal to save enough money to cover their own needs and still have some left over. Such people have earned the freedom to pursue their own interests or perhaps, improve the lives of their families or whoever else they would value over the money, itself.
What if I said the opposite: That money is worth more than everything? Is money worth more than your life? Is it worth more than the things that sustain your life? If you think gold and silver are the most valuable things you could own then you should be selling the chair you’re sitting on and everything in your house to buy gold and silver. Why own the computer you’re reading this article on if you could sell it and buy gold. Why purchase a sandwich for lunch instead of an ounce of silver? Why own a car or pay for medical insurance if you could buy gold, instead?
If you truly believe money is the most valuable thing in the world then you should be naked in the woods guarding a large pile of gold.
Money is an amazingly powerful and efficient tool. But, it is only a tool. And tools are meant to serve mankind. They are never more important than mankind. To value money over human life would be absurd.
A Swiss-army knife will always have less value than a baby. And tools, like money, will always have less value than the life they serve.
Tags: barter, Division of Labor, exchange, gold, investment, money, silver, value
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