Friday, January 27, 2006

Alien and Ignoramus

This alien will drive me crazy. Today I found him tearing up currency and folding debit cards to make boats.

“Oh Al, you mustn’t. They are very valuable and important”, I tried to retrieve whatever was left.

“This is just paper and plastic!”

“No Al, this is money. It is a token for exchange. You see everything has some value. Its price in money indicates its value. We use money to buy things. ”

“What price the hummingbird? The air? The oceans? The forests? The earth? People?” Al eager to buy them all.

“No, you can not buy the air, oceans, forests and earth. If someone catches a hummingbird and sells it to you, you may be able to buy it. You can not buy people. You can hire them if you own a company. It is not called buying. We attach a price to the things we make.”

“Who decides the price?”

“Well you see this is market economy. It is demand and supply that determine the price.” I started explaining demand and supply graphs to Al.

“Ignoramus, do you really think that these bits of paper and plastic are very valuable and important?”

“Yes we all know that. We have been told so.”

Al started laughing.

“You all must be really naïve. Bits of paper and plastic, valuable, important???!!! What if I burn all paper and plastic? Will you have nothing valuable left on this planet?”

Now what do I say?