Money fascinates and frustrates in equal measure. With the Canadian dollar hovering at par against its American counterpart, conversations turn to exchange rates, yet few pause to question the deeper nature of this everyday abstraction. Why accept a piece of paper or a digital entry in exchange for real goods and services? The theme emerges clearly: money reveals far more about morality and freedom than mere pricing.
Three paths exist to acquire anything in life—by gift, by earning through voluntary trade, or by taking without consent, which amounts to theft by force or fraud. Politics often disguises the third as virtue, labeling wealth redistribution as equity while condemning the same act in private life as criminal.
Government compulsion in transactions denies consent, eroding the moral foundation of exchange. Voluntary trades create win-win outcomes, where both parties value what they receive more than what they give up, increasing overall wealth through mutual benefit. Forced exchanges, common in state spending, depreciate value and breed resentment.
Subjective value drives prices, as illustrated in everyday encounters—like a mother discovering why a rare comic book commands far more than a common one. Collectors assign worth based on desire, proving value lies not in inherent properties but in individual judgment. This principle exposes fallacies in collectivist schemes that treat wealth as a fixed pie to be sliced “fairly.” Production generates wealth; productivity, not mere hard work, elevates living standards by creating more with less effort.
Inflation confuses money with wealth itself, an illusion exploited by governments that expand credit and currency supply, eroding purchasing power—especially for those least able to hedge against it. Historical examples abound: paper currencies collapse while gold retains value across millennia. Credit creation by banks, often politically enabled, mimics counterfeiting, transferring wealth subtly but surely.
Discussions with callers highlight supply and demand in professions, the pitfalls of materialism mistaken for happiness, and the contradictions in visions of moneyless utopias like those in Star Trek. True progress stems from free markets where consent reigns, not coercion disguised as social good.
Money is Just Right as the barometer of a society’s virtue.
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