We had shells, skins, a minted coin, printing papers, plastic cards entered the use of not so long ago, and soon,
perhaps, only numbers on the screen will remain. They, according to economists, are only the equivalent of our work. But it seems that they have something else. What are we doing with money, and they are with us?
Why money matters? “There are few among us those who are not in touch with them at least a day,” notes Stas Efremov, a psychedramatherapist, the host. – Since humanity has passed the era of natural metabolism, we do not take little directly from nature. To get food, clothes, a house, knowledge, impressions – everything needs money that modern society considers as an independent value ”.
Sometimes we even forget that they are needed for a reason, but for something that is a means, not a goal.
Tool and resource
You can meet the statement that money is an economic tool that allows us to get what we want. But there is a difference: the tool is designed for a specific work. Hammer – to score nails, brush – paint. But for bread and for massage, we pay the same money.
“This is a universal tool, which means that it is more like a resource than a tool as such,” emphasizes the psychologist, author of the book “Cultural Animal” Roy Baumester. -Another difference is that a real tool allows you to do something directly. It doesn’t matter what others think about the tool. You just use it and it brings results. But money is completely dependent on what others think of them. “.
Without their consent, money is just pieces of paper or badges on the screen. But if we – the whole society – agree with the value attributed to the money, they open access to all the resources that society has, and at the same time make everyone less dependent on the goodwill and approval of others. We do not have to please others so that they give us what we wish – for this it is enough to offer them money.
“Money is not like a physical instrument,” Roy Baumister concludes, “and in a certain sense are a universal social tool”. But our relationship with them paradoxically begins much earlier than we become part of society.