Amanda Ramcharitar Yoga

What is worth the all allusive $? I’ve had a few conversations the last few week talking about money.  How people get it, who is making alot of it, who is making none of it, and the incredible drive to have it.

Amazingly in contradiction to what one may think, barter was not the common currency before exchange.  The common currency up until a few thousand years ago was a form of gift exchange.  Gift exchange could be in terms of food, or what ever one had to share, usually this type of sharing happened amongst people that were family or in the same village with one another.  With the introduction of trade amongst strangers a form of barter system came into play where something like Barley was weighed against its value of gold, silver or copper.  The main dilemma with the Barter system was the need for an exact exchange of wants.   Therefore in came formal currency, metals being preferred due to its easier exchange and divisibility, over shells or animals.  The dilemma was the coin itself carried the currency’s value, and with an influx of gold or silver  this would either drive the worth of it up or down.  So with this in-fluctuations came a paper exchange that gave a recognized backing of an institution to guarantee a worth of a bill of sale, paper exchange.

The question really though is, how much are banknotes, gold, silver really worth?  Our current system of exchange has gone so far beyond what was originally thought possible, the underlying premise of survival has become almost invisible to the vast system that surrounds it.   Everything has a value but also, only to the person who needs it.  For example, you maybe do not need a bowl, but for someone who only has soup to eat, a bowl is the most important object necessary, take that bowl away and that person’s survival is at stake.

There is a influx of people clamoring to buy gold, gold hitting an all time high, seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14195981 most investing due to the recession that rocked our economic world.  In the past though only certain societies valued gold.  The worth of gold is not equally shared.  Now in my humble opinion what our modern society is failing to realize is that our ancestor’s were common sense people, its only the “intellects” that have cleverly created very impressive systems of exchange & savings that masks the reality of what really something worth.

For example, rice.  Its one of the cheapest things to buy in groceries, yet we rely heavily on the its stability and availability.  Yet rice is cultivated on the backs of cheap labour and vast tracks of well rained land.   If one really thinks about it, if these workers (commonly women) walked off the job or an extreme environmental shift happened, a huge economic food crises could happen as well as a large part of the world population would suffer tremendously. Will gold hold its value when food or water becomes a more precious commodity?  You see the power of exchange is within its worth, its need, and the demand.  If we value diamonds, they have worth, but if its unnecessary to our survival than its the same as finding it in a gumball machine.

One of the most subdued forms of economy to be valued beyond basic survival is, real information.  The person who carries knowledge truly carries the world in their hand.  One’s that know’s the healing or edible plants, true health, oceanic tides, midwifery, tool making, carpenters, gardeners, teachers, artists capable of critical thinking, engineers, innovators, MacGyver’s!  I would much rather be in a survival situation with a San Bushman or someone who can grow a garden, then a politician.  Knowledge is not what we go to school for its what we depend on, its what gives us growth and understanding of how to survive well, especially in this unpredictable environment of financial & environmental uncertainty.  This knowledge we all depend on unknowingly.  Through discrimination of what what one really needs, the knowledge lacking presents itself and thus the flow continues…