What is the meaning and morality of Money Is it good bad or

What is the meaning and morality of Money? Is it good, bad, or both, or neither? Explain your answer.

Has capitalism triumphed? If so, why has capitalism triumphed? Explain your answer with reference to this chapter.

Solution

Modern money creates, transforms, transports, and possesses meaning by virtue of how it is used. Money is not the result of material processes. Its roles in the economy assume a social and moral ethos. In turn, the ethos is dependent upon custom and custom as law. Money does not remember its origins in these prior agreements, and often ignores the moral import of choices affecting its quantity and cost. Money, too, is not subordinate to society, or limited by societal boundaries. Rather, by a reversal, the structures of the social and moral order are themselves shaped by money. Money’s dominance, and therefore its freedom, appears complete.

It is said that money is a mere veil and intrinsically unimportant. What matters is the real goods and productive factors which money buys. However, this extreme view about the unimportance of money as such is no longer believed. Not only is money an important factor without which modern complex economic organisation is impossible, but it is also an important factor for promoting economic development

n the economy today money performs several functions. Money serves as a standard of value in which other values are measured. Money is a store of value, that is, the means in which wealth can be held. It acts as a standard for deferred payments.

However, the most important function of money which distinguishes it from other goods is that it serves as a medium of exchange. That is, money is a means of payment for goods and services. It is this use of money that distinguishes a monetary economy from a barter economy. A monetary economy is one in which goods are sold for money and money is used to buy goods.

From the viewpoint of development another important role of money lies in making the magnitude of investment independent of the current level of savings. I