what money really means and how to get rich_5

The idea of money is what has become all important. It's the idea of having it, not particularly seeing it, that drives my Imagination, for example. He doesn't need to see it to conceive of utilizing its purchasing power. Money, to Him, doesn't need to be fetched, transported, and exchanged for goods or services; the purchasing power of money is communicated.

The evolution of money has transgressed the physical and has found itself anew in a global compositional equation. Money provides the ability to do certain things. It holds that proposition. It is full of "if onlys."Money to the Lydians meant control. It meant creating a basic system of value. It meant creating some type of comparability among goods and services.

By doing that, the Lydians spun the world away from utilitarianism and

toward an interpretational matrix of worth.

Money to the Romans meant power and influence. It meant imperialism through a well-financed military. Money could buy power. It could buy control.It was the capture of power and control—through disparate ideologies—that decidedly split the world into two superpowers. It was the exorbitant financing of a military that led to the downfall of the Soviet Union and its

communist economy.President Nixon's lifting of the gold standard meant that money could stand on its own. Dee Hock's disorderly abstract placement of value on goods and services meant money, in its tangible form, could disappear.To him, to financiers,

and other professional money managers, money means a system for

the exchange of value. This system, made up of blips of electronic digits, has created more wealth over the last ten years than in the course of history.The value proposition money holds has been exploited to the tune of some seven million millionaires, five hundred billionaires, and a generally expanding world economic environment. The value of money is strong. It's a New Economy. Just as those electron digits travel at the speed of light, so too is wealth created and lost today.The digits that represent our "value," our "worth,"

are housed by an account, identified by a number.The digits are influenced by the monetary system—and their value, our value, is thus determined.My Imagination can't see money anymore. He sees a blurry, gray computer screen displaying digits. But it doesn't mean much to Him. Dollars, however,bring a flash of excitement. He sees the green and white notes—the $1 bill with the face of George Washington; the $5 bill with the face of Abraham Lincoln; the $10 bill with the face of Alexander Hamilton; the $20 bill with the face of Andrew Jackson; the $50 bill with the face of Ulysses S. Grant;and the $100 bill with the face of Benjamin Franklin. Those dollars mean something to my Imagination. They service the spirit. They hold the potential of being fulfilled.