Value For Money

"Money," wrote Ayn Rand, cult author and controversial propounder of objectivist philosophy, "is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value."

The catchphrase is 'value for value'. And, maybe, trust in a promise made on a piece of paper. In this sense, money or trade recognizes the belief that nothing in the world is free. Whatever we wish to have, has to be earned. So, if A wants what B owns, or is in a position to give, then A has to give B something of equal worth. Rand believed that only those who did not want to trade would condemn money. Who wanted for free what others had created with their effort and capability.

"Money has served as a medium of exchange after trying a variety of other items, which were found lacking," explains N.K. Somani, CMD of Shree Vindhya Paper Mills, Mumbai. "Every person needs products and services in life. Money plays the role of a recognized value for the exchange of commodities and services. If there was no commonly-accepted unit for these transactions, there would be anarchy in the world."

MoneyRand went a step further in recognizing money as the means of sustenance. "Money is the source of survival," she wrote in Atlas Shrugged. "The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life." Perhaps it is worthwhile to wonder why money still draws so much flak. Why is it that most people hesitate to proclaim that they actually like money? What's the taboo all about? When did a simple tool for exchange metamorphose into an ambivalent entity that is at once a source of shame and exultation?

"The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it," proclaims Ayn Rand boldly.