FHC #7 – Money [3 pages]

Concerns of “Historical Beings”

Education, Money, Career, Membership and World

Money, Real Money, is not currency.

Currency is a substitute for Real Money that people invent and use to drop the cost of transacting. 

Currency is concrete because we can see it, touch it and feel it.

Real Money is an abstract notion rooted in understanding what it means to be a human being.  Making it is part of our ability to survive.

Real Money, is “HELP” that people want badly enough to pay for to take care of human, financial, marital, career and business concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies.

When we go to the grocery store to buy lettuce, for instance, we accept the store’s “offer of help” by paying for it.

The offer of help is the Real Money.  (This is explained in Chapter 4 of the book Aji, an IR#4 Business Philosophy.)

Money is a fundamental human concern because no individual, family or business can fulfill their intentions to survive, adapt to changing situations or live a good life without it.

This is a fact of life.

Those who dispute the fundamental importance, utility and worth of making money, argue about it, rant or sing about it or doubt it  — during moments when they are not paying their bills for housing, food, transportation, health care, family and play, or working to earn money to pay them —  are wrong.

Making money is essential to our survival and to live a good life.

When people who think there’s something wrong with money, or having money, lose their jobs, for instance, they are never thrilled at being “free” so they can go do something more meaningful or enjoyable.  Nope.  They go out and get a job so they can afford the help they need to buy food, housing, medical care and transportation, just like everyone else.

At the heart of many problems about making money for most businesspeople is a misunderstanding or confusion about money that is distracting and debilitating.

Confusing currency with Real Money, or help taking care of concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies, distracts businesspeople so they cannot see Money clearly.  This thwarts their ability to fulfill their financial, career and business intentions.

Being blind to the abstract nature of Real Money thwarts their intentions to increase their competitive capabilities and advantages, or to double their productivity, value and incomes.

It prevents them from using their computers and the internet strategically and competitively, or as the most powerful money-making tools ever invented.

While Real Money, or the value of help in different circumstances, is an abstract notion, the consequences triggered when businesspeople’s savings and income aren’t high enough during 25+ years of old age with their spouse are not.  They are concrete, just as are two practical lessons they learn.  Some learn a third.

The first lesson everyone learns when they can’t afford the help they and their spouse need in order to take satisfactory care of their most fundamental human concerns, such as body  — housing, food, health care, transportation —   family, work, play and sociability …

… is that they need real practical and costly HELP from others in order to survive, adapt and live a good life,

… or, to avoid pain, suffering and despair,

… or, in order to avoid the chronic, or unrelenting, financial pressures triggered by not having enough money to pay others for their help.

If anyone had the thought when they were younger earning a high enough income that they didn’t need help from others and could afford to dismiss people casually, their mistaken notions get shoved in their faces forcefully when they are older with not enough money.

The second lesson they learn is that everyone else is in the exact same situation.

No one can afford to give away their goods and services to people who need them but who cannot give them anything of equal or greater value in return, no matter how much they might want to.

Yes.  People can make one-time exceptions, or be charitable, if they can afford them.

But, no, it isn’t possible to operate a viable business that doesn’t make “enough money”.  Individuals and businesses must require compensation, or a transaction to avoid going out of business.

The third lesson many, but not all, businesspeople learn when they grow older, settle down with their spouse and children, and no longer have “enough money”,

… is that the Carnies they used to listen to because they were fun and made it easy to “live in the moment”, who told them how terrific, right, entitled and important they were, and whom they paid for entertaining and distracting goods and services to help them do what they wanted when they wanted to do it,

… no longer talk to them or care about them at all.  (Yes.  They were pretending to care.)

The point is that to “make Real Money” businesspeople must be dignified adults who have the capability to produce help that is (1) important, (2) useful and (3) worthwhile enough for others to become willing to pay for.

This is how IR#4 businesspeople “make money” literally and directly, instead of by IR#3 Proxy’s work ethics, e.g., hard work, determination, busyness, thinking outside the box or reliance on common sense.

Money is “historical” because businesspeople find themselves born into a World, and a marketplace, in which it has already been invented, as it must be because of our biological limitations. 

No human being, family or small group of humans is capable of taking satisfactory care of their most fundamental human concerns without help from many other people.

Money is “existential” because it is needed to afford the goods and services we all need to survive, adapt and live a good life.

It is “strategic” because using it to produce transactions, or help that is tactical and strategic, enables businesspeople to execute strategies, improve them and design and execute new ones.

It is “competitive” because it can be used to increase competitive capabilities and advantages to produce fresh, new offers, practices, narratives and strategies whose marginal utilities are highly valued and scarce relative to demand.