THE MOVIE “CABARET,” STARRING LIZA Minelli, has a song in it “Money Money.” It’s a classic, sung by Joel Grey in the movie. As a kid, I used to listen to that soundtrack and I loved that song.
Money is what allows us to set our values. By that I mean, that where we spend our money declares for us, as a society, what we value.
In societies that value art and music, the theater, the symphony and the operas all have enough funding. For example, in dynastic China, art was valued, so the artists were provided for. Granted there was gross inequality, and certainly the peasant class was under-funded, but what I am saying is that the society valued art over eradicating hunger.
Money is not intrinsically valuable. Nothing is. Value is put upon the object, by the observer. A dollar bill is nothing but a piece of linen with some ink on it. The only reason that it has any value is that you and I agree that, based on the shape of the ink blotches, this piece of linen is worth $1, $5 or $100, and then, we agree that we can exchange those linen pieces for other items.
As humanity has progressed from a barter society — through coins, present-day linen and “credit/debit” cards, and soon-tobe cashless society — we have changed the form of the money we use. But changing the form of money, does not change its purpose, only the way we interact with it.
The purpose of money is to make trade easier. Whether we are trying to acquire candles or a home, money makes the process of transferring an asset from one party to another quicker and easier.
This same process works for services. As a divorce attorney, I trade my time and my knowledge of how to accomplish certain goals, for money. If I was a small town attorney, perhaps I would accept fresh eggs, or a chicken or having a barn built on my back 40, in exchange for all the years of hard work I put in to acquire the knowledge of how to separate husband from wife. I could still accept barter in today’s society. I could get a man more custody or lower spousal support and he could agree to re-roof my house. But the problem with that is how to value his time versus my time.
It is this valuing process that makes money such a good idea. Money is a common valuation language that allows me to determine whether it makes more sense for me to charge my regular hourly rate, and then hire a roofer, versus trading my work for his. It is because I value my time at one rate, and he values his time at another, that creates the need for money.
If we all valued our time equally, then, trade would be simple. But life is not so simple. It takes four years of college and three years of hell, called law school, to become a lawyer. It takes years of working outdoors in bad conditions, and then lots of book reading to become a contractor. The years are not equivalent in terms of time, effort or skill sets, so we cannot make them equivalent.
Unless we use money. Money which becomes the great equalizer in terms of a common language.
Assume that my hourly rate is $100, and that I need a new roof on my 900-square-foot home. It would take me all week to do the work, that’s $4,000 at my hourly rate, for me to re-roof my house. But to the roofer, who knows what he is doing, it might take one day. He might charge me $1,000 to fix my roof. I can look at that and say its just a little roofing job, some tar paper, some nails, why should it cost that much? The answer is that he knows how to do it, and do it quickly. And I don’t.
The old adage that time is money, is true for this reason. I can make more being a lawyer in the week it would take me to do the roofing work.
The point is that when we look at what are perceived injustices, we must remember that “the issue” is rarely, if ever, the issue. Money is rarely the problem.
What we value, is the problem. Shoes for all, or Prada pumps for a few? Who we value is the problem. The little old man down the street who knows the neighborhood history, or drunken cover girl Britney Spears?
Money is just a language that allows us to communicate and come to an agreement of values. It is a hallmark of a civilized society, what that society does with it, is the result of the value the society holds.
DAVID PISARRA is a family law attorney in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He can be reached at dpisarra@pisarra.com or (310) 664- 9969.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2007. Read the original PDF.