money2

A detailed Summary of money2

Today, no matter what you do, you need money to do it. Right? Right! Shop. Travel. Make a phone call. You even need to spend money in order to make money. Money is real. People seem to be under the assumption that information wants to be free and that by enabling people to learn and follow their own interests will benefit society as a whole. Well, we no longer believe in society as a whole. We believe in the economy as a whole - a black hole! Why should you be able to think things, and even learn things, without paying somebody for that privilelege? Let's get to brass tacks, the bottom line. Money. Money is reality. You see this printed dollar bill. It' s far more real than topsoil, oxygen, the ozone layer or sunlight. You may say that this is just a piece of paper with some symbols on it, but that's sacrilege! This is the almighty dollar. Most of the dollars we worship are actually stored in cyberspace. Dollars are just digital ones and zeros in a network of computers, but that doesn't mean they're only virtual reality, and basically one big fantasy. No, dollars are utterly and entirely real, far more real than anything as vague as the public interest. If you're not a commodity, you don't exist!

In sharp contrast to this the wealthy are blessed enough to have such horrible situations plague them only in nightmares. For many wealthy families the question of freedom never crosses their minds as they take most of it for granted. Beyond the basic ability to shop and buy what they want, the wealthy can travel freely and have choice in career and education as well as many more intangible freedoms. Members of society that have enough money can do whatever they want with their lives. While a poor man is forced to slave away at work for long hours a wealthy man can not only take time of, but if he has enough money he can choose not to work at all and coast instead. Essentially this man is buying back his free time. He can also go further by hiring men to do every little task from changing light bulbs to mowing the lawn. Although this is a definite extreme case, it is still far from unfeasible. Sickly enough, a man could also choose the other extreme and give away his entire fortune to charity and thereby choose to live the life of a poor man. Of course the difference between this man and another poor man is that this man has chosen his lot in life while the second man had it forced upon him by misfortune. The wealthy also have the freedom to change how society perceives them. If one took the time to examine the punk scene or the skater groups that roam the streets, they may be surprised to find out that the vast majority of these "slackers" who are shrugged off by society actually come from middle class and upper class backgrounds. Because these kids have moneyed families behind them they do not have to worry about the stereotyping and prejudices that they gain along with their clothes and attitudes. If they are jailed for looking suspicious they are quickly bailed out, and even if they commit a crime the bail does not come far behind. Their counterparts among the poor however, would rot in the jails for a longer time and many could not afford to go to jail in the first place, because as stated earlier, many cannot miss a paycheck. The rich kids can also afford the expensive leather jackets and skateboards as well as they can afford Abercrombie & Fitch clothing. In this way the rich have the opportunity to camouflage themselves. The adults to can "dress down" in older clothes to alter their appearance while the poor lack the ability to "dress up" in the expensive outfits.

lements of our lives that exist outside the money economy. There's a lot going on in our lives that's not-for-profit and that can't be denominated in dollars. "The best things in life are free," the old saying goes. Nice old saying. Gets a little older-sounding every day. Sounds about as old and mossy as the wedding vow "for richer for poorer," which in a modern environment is pretty likely to be for-richer-or poorer following our prenuptial agreement. Commercialization, a favorite buzzword of mine. It's a very powerful phenomenon. It's getting more powerful year by year.

This has shown how wealth and degrees of freedom can affect the lives of similar people in a supposedly free and democratic society, but it has ignored to freedoms in the quality of those lives. Once again, wealth fundamentally alters purchasing power and this alteration allows those with the means to live more or less however they want to while their counterparts flounder in government regulations and necessity. Once a family has sunken into poverty they have crossed one of society's invisible lines and they are no longer privileged to the basic rights that the rest of society tends to take for granted. A family in poverty has little if any privacy as it suddenly becomes the business of greater society what that family does. The finances, the family decisions, and the living conditions are all subject to regulation by government and charity. Instances of child removal and repossession increase dramatically for poor families as compared to middle class families.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Think Air, Abercrombie Fitch, Melville Dewey, Money Money, Shop Travel, money money, , free knowledge, air free, wealthy family, society believe, free water, economic value, choice choice, middle class, poor family,

Approximate Word count = 2768
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous