what money really means and how to get rich_137

_{Trust.This is a component of character, which determines whether people}

_{can have faith in us. In what subtle ways do we act upon our moral base of}

_{determinants that define right and wrong? Can we be trusted to pay on time?}

_{Can we be trusted to create value, and by how much? Can we be trusted to}

_{increase value or the worth of something? Can we be trusted to convey}

_{another person's or thing's trust? It's this last determinant that is most important.}

_{If we say money is boundless (it needs some system of storage—an}

_{exchange, accounting, or finite commodity—to make it valuable), then in an}

_{open architectural environment of trade, the conveyors themselves would need}

_{to be trusted in order to keep value measurable. Otherwise, like inflation,}

_{money depreciates in exchangeable worth.}

_{So, let's say that money is your word. And let's say that you parcel out what}

_{you know is your value—increasing or decreasing that value as your exchanges}

_{multiply—then you, the facilitator,must have a certain degree of trust to retain}

_{value and pass that value along.Your moral code, or ethics, would have to be}

_{judged, rated even. Let's say that rating is how credible you are as a conveyor.}

_{So, let's make it easy and call that rating a credit rating. Sound familiar? It}

_{should, it's how we judge a person's purchasing power most of the time.}

_{Next is information. More original information will be created over the}

_{next two years than over the course of human existence, or so says a University}

_{of California Berkeley study. Moreover, 93 percent of this information will be}

_{digital. It's created by handheld organizers, PC devices, mobile telephones, and}

_{other technologies. In other words, this information, which includes our personal}

_{information—things like how often we speak to whom, what we say,}

_{how we spend, and what we spend on—is stored as data. In fact, piled high}

_{on floppy disks, this information would reach 24 million miles into space, but}

_{we can't even see it.}

_{Then, there are companies, called asset aggregators, which combine and}

_{house our personal data, digitize it all, and store this information on the Web.}

_{Telephone, utility, credit card, investment, saving, biographical, and even wage}

_{information is electronically disseminated and captured online. Our purchases,}

_{too, are more and more electronic, tracked and stored in product or service}

_{vendor databases. More than half of all U.S. households last year purchased a}

_{good or service online. Most American households own a computer. The}

_{number of online purchases is estimated to saturate the number of computer}

_{owners so that every one who owns a PC will eventually make purchases}

_{online. This all means that most everything we say, act, or trade upon is digitally}

_{recorded somewhere, somehow—and stored.}