John Locke explains what money is: the means man has invented to appropriate goods. However, I would go further to say that money is merely a catalyst for the fluid exchange of wealth. Whereas trading involves dealing in perishable items, money can be easily stored and kept. It also makes it easier to determine the relative value of merchandise when everything is priced in dollars.

So, money is a paper representation of physical value that was invented so that people could exchange labor for goods. When one goes to work, one gets paid the value of one’s labor in dollars. Then one can exchange those dollars for goods and services that one has earned. The money system is most convenient because it allows for the fluid transfer of goods and services. Money can be exchanged for anything. In short, money is everything one needs to live.

If money is used to distribute how much each person gets, the economy is how much there is to go around. In a bad economy, the value of money is lower because there is less to go around. When the economy is bad, everyone suffers. When it is good, everyone is happier. The economy effects people collectively, whereas the distribution of money effects individuals. Still, bad economies effect people unevenly- those at the very top might notice little difference. This can be the difference between having to sell a third car and having to donate an extra kidney to pay rent.

The economy is a nation’s collective wealth and money is the means of measurement and exchange.

What is money? –  My definition on money is a tool that shows how hard you have worked and to buy what you need. A resource of survival.

OED def: 1. Any generally accepted medium of exchange which enables a society to trade goods without the need for barter; any objects or tokens regarded as a store of value and used as a medium of exchange.

What is Economy?- I define economy a  system of trade/ Information.

OED def: I. The way in which something is managed; the management of resources; household management.

Returning to the perspective presented at the start, how does the society place value, presumably monetary value? The answer to this question will become more apparent by evaluating  what is money, and what is the economy? The typical definition follows that money is a medium of exchange that represents a value of gold. Other items similarly gain value due to their rarity and availability, in which the society associates with a number, or monetary value. Nevertheless, a society places value on work; therefore the time, effort, and skills relate back to an excepted significance. The dollar and other currencies have long histories of simplifying the trading process. However, the definition remains broad and has the ability to evolve over time.

The society’s viewpoint on money changes as the economy progresses. The economy is how society manages its resources. Every individual in the society has needs in order to survive, including other desires. The economic “flow” is determined by how people trade their goods or services for other goods and services. Therefore, the economy is the regulation of a countries wealth in order to survive or advance in life; which we knowingly or unknowingly encounter every day.

Traditionally, money was a measure of an individual’s worth, his or her efforts and ability to produce something useful and desirable for society. Considering the days of bartering, people would trade goods or services with one another, and the importance of that good or service determined its worth. Today, money has become more abstract to include things like credit, stock, bonds, and loans to borrow money or invest, taking advantage of the current market and its trends. This kind of money no longer serves the purpose of simply proving worth, but also wealth. If it is known how to invest properly, one can earn money without direct labor. The economy is the sum of its parts, being the consumers, individuals, businesses, government, and foreign influence who each strive to increase their own wealth by interacting with one another. The most profit is often made by creating and distributing the best technology, education, health care, service, clothing, merchandise, and food. The stock market provides a general map of these today to find who is providing the most desirable products to society.

Money is a means to an end, a convenient intermediate in the exchange of goods and services.  In lieu of directly bartering, a consumer can essentially just hand over an IOU which the seller can then trade to someone else.  Even though money in this day and age is still essentially just an IOU, people still place value in it since it has become the basis of society and can be used to purchase basically anything anyone could want.

Economy is a bit trickier to define, even though the definition can be simplified to just the flow of money through society.  While the major component of economy is the flow of money, the values of goods and services are determined through many different factors, chiefly supply and demand in the US economy.

However unlike in the past, investment and speculation seem to have taken control of the world’s economy, where money is channeled into certain ventures that seem to be productive, and in turn the value of money changes as the players either produce more or develop new and exciting ways of doing things.  I thought the idea that value is based on how much people think a company or country will be worth in the future was interesting take on the problem of why money is valuable.

Money is a form of power that is used to move the world. It has become so important in this society that when something that has to do with money changes, then the people would have to adapt accordingly. Other than power, money is a currency, which is used to purchase products that is wanted and needed. It has been created to better organize trade and to make it more efficient. Money is also used to label people. The more money you have the better off you are as opposed to if you were to have less. Money is a lot of things but overall I think it is a form of power because it usually gives you the power to do things that you otherwise could not in this society.

The economy is a structure made by people who feel that there needs to be organization and control. It gives a reasonable representation of how the society is doing as a whole. The better the economy, the better off people are. It is comprised of workers and people who interact with it in order to make something happen. For example: purchasing, selling, trading, and working to better the economy. All this makes up its entirety but it is only a structure, it does not carry a definite form but is a representation of the whole society.

The Wikipedia definition of money is, “any object or record, that is generally accepted as payment for good and services and repayment of debts in a given country.” However, when I think about money, the first image that pops into my head are green papers. It is a little funny that just thin sheet of green printed-papers is the tool that people need to thrive. Having money represents wealth. In other words, the more “green” you have, the wealthier you will be. Subsequently, the wealthier you are or you will be, the more opportunities that are open to you. For example, attending a university because you or you’re family can afford to pay the tuition. Money may have started by trading stones or livestock, but as time went by, money took the form of dollars and coins. Money symbolizes worth, value, and wealth.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, economy is, “the management of household or private affairs and especially expenses.” I do not have a clear understanding of what an economy is yet I do know that a healthy economy is when the circulation, transaction cycle of money is running smoothly. The results are the people, the society is happy. When an economy does not have a smooth flow of money, people are not happy because money is not accessible. Small businesses and the poor are more affected by a bad economy than wealthier people.

When I imagine money, I think of actual currency as in coins and cash. But when I think about it, I consider credit, checks, some other forms of payment money as well. Money is something that represents value, something that you use to obtain something else. By that definition, almost anything could be money because you can trade just about anything. However, I don’t consider fruit, services, or computers as money. Those all have value and can be traded for something else, but in my mind, money is something that you can only use to obtain something else that you actually need.

The economy is the exchange and flow of money and resources. It can help indicate the wealth as well as health of an area. When the wealth is sufficient enough and somewhat evenly distributed, everyone will be happy. However, when the distribution is very polarized, there will be people who suffer from not being able to obtain the necessary resources. I don’t understand the economy very much, but I believe that when it is good, people are usually specializing in a good or service. Then they trade with others who have specialized in another goods or services. This creates a strong flow of money and resources, and people will be able to obtain what they need.

I believe money is a tool that humans created to help make trading goods easier and more consistent. We created a currency and gave it a specific worth, upon which we value goods and items. Rather than simply trading one good for another as people did long ago, goods are traded for their equivalent amount of money, which can be later used to trade for an entirely different good. Money can also be traded for an individual’s time and labor, which is prevalent with the salaries people receive from their jobs. Because of this, money also acts as a key incentive for individuals to work and produce goods and services that others desire and need. The more money an individual has, the more they are capable of possessing. This is often seen as being more successful and powerful.

The economy is the system through which these transactions occur. It is a way that allows people to monitor where the money is being traded and what it is being traded for. Money is constantly being traded and moving from one place to the other, so the economy never remains in the same state for long. The economy doesn’t contain high numbers of physical dollar bills. Rather, it monitors the money in a credit form. While the money that an individual possesses and the money the economy keeps track of are essentially the same thing, they occur on much different scales. The amount of money that circulates in the economy is unimaginable to the individual.

I think that money is a tool used to give and receive power through the use of goods and services. We use it to get what we need or want on a daily basis, rent, groceries, food, bills etc. Money is a tool because it isn’t the money itself that is valuable, but what can be done with it that counts. If you have a hammer, good for you, but you still don’t have a house. If you have money…I suppose you could stack it up and live in a pile of money but it would be put to better use to use the money as a tool to gain a house. I think an answer to “What is money” is fairly simple, a tool. But the next part “A tool for what?” is where it gets complicated.

The economy is a system through which things of value are traded and exchanged. It is a collection of people, business owners, buyers, corporations, laborers, government workers and others who trade their money cash, coin or usually numbers on a screen for things they want or need. An economy structures how and when money is divided among groups of people and eventually to individuals. On a base level I think that an economy is a system through which people can get what they need to survive, and with that comes industry, government and technological progress.