By Rev. Robert Plaisted

Guest Columnist

Much of modern life is a mad scramble for money, so perhaps we should ask what money is, and how it became so important to us. Merriam Webster defines money as “something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.” Money and value are human inventions. Intrinsic value is “the value that something has in itself.” Extrinsic value is “the value of something based on such things as appearance, or what it could be sold for, which may not be its real value.” Intrinsic value is real; extrinsic value is whatever people think it is.

Clean, breathable air has intrinsic value; if we don’t breathe it for 10 minutes, we die. Ditto for fresh, drinkable water; if we don’t drink it for a week or two, we’re kaput. If we can’t access fertile land, sufficient to sustain life, we starve in 40 to 50 days. When our lives are at stake, we’ll choose a loaf of bread over all the money on earth.

I’d suggest a different definition of money. Money has little or no intrinsic value; it’s mere idolatry for people whose lives are based on extrinsic values. It’s not accidental that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago compulsively buries himself in tawdry golden appurtenances. We’ve danced around golden calves since Moses’ time. 

How did ancient humans come to believe that money — an artificial human construct — has intrinsic value? The idea developed alongside human civilization. Since Homo sapiens emerged roughly a quarter-million years ago, we’ve spent most of our earthly existence living without money, and just the last 10,000 years or so, living with it.

I’ve preached on the subject, “All that Glitters is not Aluminum.” Humans long have believed gold to have great value, even though we’ve never done much with it. It’s soft, very heavy, and has little utility beyond jewelry. Mostly, we melt it down, form it into bars, and store it back in the ground, as in Fort Knox. In contrast, we use aluminum for everything from jet engines, to automobiles, to kitchen cookware. It’s lightweight and cheap. We can buy a roll of it at the store for a few bucks.

Based on intrinsic value, aluminum is far more valuable than gold. It’s very abundant; gold is very scarce. That’s why their extrinsic and intrinsic values got so far out of whack. Our ancient ancestors were fascinated by glittering metals like gold, silver and copper because they were rare, heavy and impressive. Over time, powerful people began hoarding them, so eventually they became money — “a medium of exchange, a measure of value.” But money never had much intrinsic value. A breath of clean, fresh air is worth more than all the gold and silver humans have mined. There’s an anonymous saying: “No man is so poor, as he who has nothing but money.”

We have mistaken Earth’s trivial stuff, for what is truly valuable. Today’s horrendous, violent weather is just one long-term consequence of that mistake. Intrinsic value derives from our reverence for Earth, our only home, above everything else. Earth contains all the resources, upon which human life depends.

Accumulating money cannot save us from folly. Jesus said not to heap up treasure on Earth. So, if you’re tired of that old, paycheck-based job, stop doing it. Change the way you think and act. Relax, it’s just money! Start living for things that really matter. Everything we need already is here.

Rev. Robert Plaisted is a retired United Methodist clergyman, formerly of Bridgton, now residing in Bath.