For the Love of Money

An Experiment:
I just purchased The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist. I'm going to interpret it based on the cover and title, the brief description on the back of the book, and a few of my experiences. Once I've read a significant portion of the book, we will see if my interpretation has any relation at all to the actual book content.

It has a...Soul?
What does the Soul of Money imply? Money can't have a soul. It's a piece of paper. Right?

Let's say there's a man, his name is Mr. Money. His wife is named Mrs. Money. Mr. and Mrs. Moolah live together with their 5 kids in the heart of a rural, underdeveloped location in the 1700s. Mr. and Mrs. Money are really good at growing rhubarb and turning it into preserves. It's a family recipe and only Mr. and Mrs Money know how to make it so the preserves last the longest out of all the other preserves. They live in a region with about 30 other families, but they are the only family with the rhubarb growing and preserving expertise.

All the other families have their own skills, commodities, and eccentricities. Each, however, is limited by resources and can realistically only produce, and create, one or two types of food.

Nobody wants to live off of rhubarb jam for their entire life. Mr. and Mrs. Rhubarb make trades with their neighbors so they don't have to suffer the starvation for meat one feels when they live solely on fruit.

 The value of what they receive, an item from their neighbor, is a unit of exchange. Money is a unit of exchange. That unit they receive from their neighbor, that piece of corn, sliver of meat, whatever it is - it is inherent of someone else's labor and adds value in terms of well-being and happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Money's lives, along with their children's.

The exchange is characterized by mutual benefit, and transfer of a part of someone else's life to benefit that of another. The unit of exchange could be seen as having "soul" in that sense. The soul of it's creators, who put their life into it.

My Experience
This notion of human craft as a unit of exchange, or form of money, reminds me of when I went to Panama as a little kid. The natives in Panama do not follow what we deem societal norms. They dress in their traditional clothing, which is basically nothing, and use the plants and animals around their forest dwellings to survive.

They sell things like panama hats, woven baskets, and wooden carvings to tourists from all over the world. That is their only source of income that ties them to a government issued currency. Other than that, they live off the land - I'm not sure what purchases they make with government issued currency, but the prices they charge for their handmade items are insanely low, so I'm guessing they do not buy much.

Generally for them, exchanges are made only when there is something they need. Their goal is the survival of the collective, so much individual sacrifice is made for the better of the whole tribe. Exchange time for overall well-being, not for personal gain.