GalCiv2 Forums
Okay, here's what you do for this game: You have to "ban" the person who posted above you for an outrageous, silly, or funny reason. Got it?
banned for thinking such definitions are not sufficient when the idea of money is nothing more than an illusion that we create in our own minds
money is simple and best explained with its actual origin (at least for one culture). Someone wanted to bring his livestock to market and found it a great deal of trouble to move the animals back and forth with no guarantee of selling them. So, he found others who felt the same and they devised a method to make the process more efficient. They made small shapes from clay and assigned them a numerical value, using the value of the animals as a base. They would bring these shapes to the market and buy or sell with the shapes as place markers for transactions, forcing them to only move their animals between their properties. In order to stash these markers, one of them devised the idea of wrapping it in soft clay, a convenient means of temporary storage. When the clay was later unwrapped, the inside had marks from the clay shapes (circles, crescents, etc.). The group realized that maintaining stationary tablets upon which they could record the markers would save them the trouble of carrying the accumulating clay shapes. So they marked numbers (via the symbols made by the shapes) on a series of tablets located at a central point of trade. These numbers would represent the animals and later other items traded. Thus the idea of money.
I think of it as less illusory than symbolic, but I would be lying if I said it has not grown into an illusory something for many.
Edit: banned because wiki has a good one liner for it. And it does make a difference if money is commodity or fiat. Forgot about that.
banned for an overly complicated discussion of money
prefer one liners for the ban game
Well, let me say a few things:
1. Like Ryat said, money is Legal Tender. Many people have no idea what this means, so let me explain it.
When money first appeared, it was meant as a trading item, because people had trouble carrying gold or silver, or whatever valuable metal they wanted to trade for goods. So people made coins, that were basically gold or silver (mostly gold), that was molded into round objects, that were kind of easier to carry, as well as they all had the same size, so there was no reason to measure their weight and such.
But as humanity progressed, and nations formed, laws had to be applied, because people could mix gold with other metals, or do all kinds of things to cheat the system. So they officially made money, that were in gold or silver coins, that were made by the kings, or emperors, or Pharaoh etc etc
Soon, as the first traces of a real life economy appeared, criminals started to take action, and steal, some people would sell or trade goods and become rich, so for many reasons, some people wanted a place where they can safely keep their gold, without having to carry it with them all the time, or keep it at their homes, where there was danger of getting robbed.
So the first bankers started to appear, and at first, they just offered to keep people's money into their safely guarded vaults, for some small % of their gold in exchange.
These bankers were not related with the government, or anyone in power. They were just businessmen wanting to make some profit.
Well the bankers soon realized, that they were not making much from their business, so they came up with a smart plan. They noticed that most people, didnt withdraw large amounts of money, and most of their deposits were kept there, probably being their savings. So they started giving paper notes to some people, that were like small contracts, that the banker would owe the client the amount of money they wanted to withdraw. Basically a tender note that had the same value in gold coins as the number written on it by the banker.
The bankers knew that they could do that without having to give the customers any real money, because there was no chance that they would all come to the bank to withdraw all of their deposits. Plus, the client that wanted to withdraw money from their deposits, would just give the tender note to someone else to buy goods, and that person to someone else, and so on so forth.
Later these tender notes from the bankers became legal by the governments, and the first paper money appeared.
However, money always represented some valuable goods, which meant that it could be exchanged for actually gold or silver, at any time the owner wanted to. So any person could go to the bank at any time, and exchange the tender note from the bank for gold or silver. Money actually had real value in the world.
However, today this isnt the case. Money now, holds no power or value whatsoever.
This is a 1 US dollar legal tender note (year 1928 I think).
This is a 2003 US 1-dollar legal tender note:
Please note the difference between the 2, the first being a "United States Note" and the second being a "Federal Reserve Note".
The first stating above the "ONE DOLLAR" mark, that it "WILL PAY TO THE DEALER ON DEMAND", which meant that you could get actual gold or silver coins (not sure what the US used back then) in exchange for that note from the bank, and the second not stating anything, which means that you cant really get anything of value for these notes.
This was just an example. There is a lot more to the story, which I am not going to write atm, for obvious reasons.
This whole history lesson (kind of) I am making here, is really the most innocent part of the monetary system. Because once the real bankers came in, and changed everything, then things started getting very different.
1 thing is for sure. Money doesnt have ANY value whatsoever. Because money is debt. And debt is money.
Money is being created out of thin air, and is being traded for actual goods and services. Which ultimately means that this whole monetary system were are preserving is a big scam, and we are all victims of it. WILLINGLY. Oh yeah!
For ANYONE, who might be slightly interested, and wants to learn some very basic things about money, watch the Money Masters in youtube.
Besides that, 1 more video I find enlightening, is the Zeitgeist Addendum: the movie, which can be found on Google Videos.
But really, all these videos are just slightly scratching the surface. If you do some deep research you can find a lot more interesting info, and definitely a lot more dirt and FILTH, in our well-preserved monetary system.
P.S. You may disagree with the whole Zeitgeist movement, and most things they say at the Zeitgeist movie, but really, it doesnt matter. All I talked about was just about the monetary system, and if you dont care about anything else, then just watch the first.....10-15 mins (I think) of the Zeitgeist move.
P.P.S. Please dont start telling me that all these things about the Federal Reserve system is crap, and that money isnt created out of thin air. I wont even bother answering.
/end of really long post, sorry about that.
"Cute Pokemon always get Parahax!"
No, actually money is a lot more than just an illusion. Money is a delusion and a big scam at the same time.
Oops, sorry Draak, I was writing my own post, and it took longer to write, (I wonder why 
), when I saw yours only after I posted. Yeah, we pretty much said the same thing, only that yours was just the way that money was created, while I took it further.
And yeah, I was thinking about valuable metals, you were thinking about livestock and such, oh well. Pretty much the same story, that shows how money originally represented actual goods, instead of being nothing, like it is today.
And dont confuse people with tablets and symbols, some people (like poor Ryat here), find it confusing lol 
"Cute Pokemon always get Parahax!"
banned for excessive pontification about money
money is an illusion, enough said
Oh and, I wanted to say 1 last thing: People not only they just dont believe it when you tell them why money is such a big scam, but they are not even interested in finding out.
Its like someone is telling you: "Hey man, I found proof that God doesnt exist. Let me show you." And you go all like: "No, I dont believe it! These are lies, leave me alone!"
Just an example. I wasnt implying anything about God, or any kind of religion.
Banned because most people wear blinkers, like horses do, and they dont want to remove them, and see that they are being ridden and used like animals.
"Cute Pokemon always get Parahax!"
banned for thinking that man can be so easily fooled
next you will be telling us the companies going "green" are merely playing word games to look good
Banned because I am not gonna say anything else about that matter.
One doesnt even need intelligence to find out the truth. Mere willpower is enough.
"Cute Pokemon always get Parahax!"
banned for wanting people to open their eyes and not rely on the "I'm not smart enough" excuse
Banned for wanting the opposite.
"Cute Pokemon always get Parahax!"
Banned for Ryat is wierd he agrees with you by disagreeing with you
Banned because he just doesn't realize that the world already belongs to me.
banned for all the things that go on when I sleep.
yes, money started at mathematical records.
the first actual monetary note in the west was made by the Knights Templars, which was on the virtuous side of your money talk.
Money was backed by gold in the U.S. That was changed to control inflation.
Money itself is nothing. It's what people make of it or do with it. That is why it must be treated as a means to an end. You don't collect money for the sake of money, but to acquire land and objects, things of actual value. All said objects should reinforce one another. A house improves upon land, land supports the house, the house shelters guns, the guns are used to protect the land, etc. This is the bridge one must quickly cross in order to take advantage of money without being a victim to others monetary indiscretions.
When the bombs fall, collect salt.
banned for it's not about comparison, but the value of the dollar was based on the amount of gold the US held and its worldwide value. Now it's backed by their word alone. If they changed it back to the gold standard, there is so much printed money that the dollar would plummet amazingly in value.
Banned because my parents decided that the best way to "celebrate" labor day was to spend a little under 4 hours wandering around the zoo. Now, Columbus has a rather large and well-known zoo, but I've been there so many times I've lost all interest, especially since I memorized the layout by age 11. But to my parents, everything is a completely new experience, and they expect me to not only share in their gawking but also participate in their inane and stultifyingly boring conversation...... makes me think of that Einstein quote, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing multiple times and expecting a different result".
Errgh...... I hate normal people.......
banned for it's his normal.
but I have to agree, a larger cross-section of the human populace might expose that as a little weird. Kinda makes me think of the people from The Far Side or Over the Hedge. Striking similarity between the two. Wonder if any influences might be involved.
banned for wanting a larger cross-section
that means more data to think about and compute, makes my head hurt
Think that's fun? I had to calculate the gross value of the Knight's Templar holdings at the height of their power, which included the whole of Cyprus. I aced that paper something fierce. 
Banned because Cyprus has some kind of missile that has a launch signal identical to the signal used by a remote-controlled sex toy.
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