Money

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...money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest...
—Louis CK[1]
The dismal "science"

Economics

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  $ Capitalism
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Money is anything which serves as a means of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account and represents only an extremely small fraction of the real wealth of any given society or country where it is used. Throughout history money has taken many different forms, such as coca beans, pieces of electrum stamped with the seal of the king, and stone wheels. Traditionally money was backed by some sort of commodity, such as gold or silver, and there are some who liked it much better that way. Today, most money is "fiat currency" which has no intrinsic value except as determined by the government. [1] Cranks often claim that this means dollars are worthless without gold, often forgetting that gold is just a shiny yellow metal. Just like cowrie shells, the original currency, are today effectively valueless.

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  1. Technically you could melt down coins to use them for the metal, but it really isn't worth your while.
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