What is money?

I will begin this post by saying that anyone who knows anything about money to not read the following post. I'm just rambling. There is no point. This is not an economic evaluation of the USA; this is not a philosophical discussion on the principles of economics; this is not a historical presentation of the history of money; this is not a rant about capitalism vs distributism (although that one is coming). This said, you have been warned. Don't come crying to me when my expert opinion falls short of CNN Money.

Cash, currency, credit, change, the card -- all forms of money. Money is one of the basic elements of economics. How much you have, what you spend it on, how well you save it -- these all are pieces of who you are.

There are misers who horde their money, and spend as little as they possibly can. I won't use racial stereotypes, but you know the kind of person I'm talking about. Every once in a while, it is good to be miserly with your money. Saving for a rainy day is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But, when push comes to shove, it's only money, and you can't take it with you.

Then there are the crazy spenders. You know this kind of person, too: every penny they earn is immediately spent. They've got a lot of stuff, stuff they don't need, but it's all stuff that they think will make them happy. Does it? Who am I to say? In the end, no, but I won't deny the glee that comes from having the newest thing on the market and showing it off.

Earlier, I said that how much money you have, what you spend it on and how well you save it all are pieces of who you are. I didn't mean in the materialistic sense -- I meant in a more real sense. When you take the money away from the man, what you are left with is just the man, and it is much easier to see his nature without the material facade of cash.

Like I said, though, this is entirely disjointed and probably 99% incoherent. Please just pretend you didn't read this. I'll probably follow it up later with a better post...