Fight Over Money? I'll Take a Piece of Slightly Rotted Cow

I was watching a show on the Travel Channel and laughed when I heard that the African tribesman on TV thought cheese was disgusting and couldn't understand why Americans would want to eat spoiled milk. Likewise, I'm pretty sure American viewers like me were baffled to learn that while the tribesman thought cheese was disgusting he thought eating the fresh blood clot of a cow was perfectly normal. What makes me wonder what is normal anyways? I guess it just depends on what you're used to and what your perspective is. I believe the same holds true for money.

If you watch the Travel channel long enough you'll begin to notice that whenever, let's say Anthony Bourdain, visits remote villages he brings them goods that the villages can actually use because their money is no good there.

Sometimes I think people forget that money or currency is just a concept, a tangible idea. It is a store of value and will remain so as long as there is trust amongst the people using it. When trust is lost or gained, the object used as money changes to whatever the majority who uses it wills it to be. In industrialized countries like the US, Japan, Canada, the currency of choice are colored pieces of thin paper. The most popular one is the US dollar. In remote villages in, let's say, Africa it's livestock, insects, or fruits and vegetables.

A US dollar is not a cow and a cow is not a cocoa bean or a tarantula. This is all something we know to be true. We all know that these items are different. However what is not readily obvious is that they are all forms of currency. Depending on which perspective you take, the most valuable form of currency is dependent upon where you are. If you are located in the sunny state of Florida, right now the form of money that will be readily transformable into something you actually want is the US dollar. However, if you were located in some remote unknown village in a third world country you'd probably want a pig or a chicken. Why? Well, even if you have no use for a piece of colored paper or pig it doesn't matter. The only thing that does matter is that someone else is willing to take that colored piece of paper or pig off your hands and give you something that you actually want and can use. Let's say, for example, buying a car.

If you were to walk into a Ford Dealership and try to buy a Ford Explorer with a cow they'd look at you as though you were crazy. A cow to an American car salesman is a liability not an asset. Because although the cow does have intrinsic value in that it can be eaten to sustain the car salesman, he won't accept the cow as payment because he prefers his cow meat slightly spoiled or "aged", wrapped in plastic wrap, stamped with ink that says USDA Grade, and sold at his local grocery store at his convenience. Besides, I don't think he'd be able to deposit the cow in his account at Bank of America. Not to mention customers would be wondering why a cow was wandering around in his dealership.

Likewise, if you were to give a tribesman paper money or US dollars, they'd look at you as though you were crazy. What the heck are they going to do with thin pieces of colored paper that they can't eat and that nobody else in the nearby villages want?

Money is strange perhaps only because we make it so. People in western countries fight over money all the time. It tears families apart and causes great misery. It's absolutely crazy. I'm sure this bewilders tribesman from Third World countries too because to them those colored pieces of green paper also known as US dollars simply aren't worth fighting over.

In my opinion money, like everything else, follows along the same patterns as everything else in the world. The form of money changes all the time which is why I think the US dollar and thus the US economy goes through periods of inflation and deflation because we are all looking at the economy from the perspective of the US dollar and nothing else. We never look outside our own bubble. We never look at our economy in terms of other forms of currency.

If hyperinflation should ever hit the US, instead of fighting over paper money we will be fighting over cows just like the tribesman, except unlike them we won't be fighting over a whole live cow that's walking around. We'll be fighting over pieces of dead cow covered in plastic wrap at our local grocery store which I'm sure would gross out any African tribesman. Who the heck would want to eat dead slightly rotted meat wrapped in plastic? Americans do. In fact, they'll even pay a higher price depending upon how the meat was allowed to spoil.

African Tribesman: Eww gross! Americans are crazy.

Me: I agree. Let's go eat some fried tarantulas.