Crime Against Humanity: Hands Up and Give Us Your Wallet

Two things have been said that might come in handy here; one is that “money is an idea backed with confidence, or enforced confidence”, and the other is that “on the day when we can fully trust each other, there will be peace on Earth.”.

As you see, their common key is trust, confidence, and the subject of letting go of one’s wallet is definitely a matter of trust. Anything – I mean, anything – is but agreement, and property rights are no exception. Just consider how it would be if we became totally barbarous: we would spend all our time tearing morsels from each other’s grasp; anything but property rights, not even possession would survive. And that is more than just a joke; property stems from possession, and it’s an advance in civilization: things can remain yours – property – even if you put them down for a moment – possession –. And both possession and property are based on agreement: we can have, whether it be possession or property, because our fellows agree that we can and abide by such agreement, refraining from both tearing things from our grasp and ignoring our claims of ownership on them when we put them down.

When it comes to your money, there are two agreements by the other people: one is that your money has purchasing power, the other is that that money is yours. I think we discussed the first agreement at considerable length; now let’s take a look at the second: what is yours, and how, exactly?

Because one facet of the ambiguous money cycle is the progressive dematerialisation of money. Do you think money is made to transcend into “pure essence” for your convenience? To figure it out, let’s review the different incarnations of money through the cycle from the viewpoint of the agreement on its ownership.