There is a belief that there is only so much money in the world. This creates a mindset of scarcity among those who believe it. Scarcity, as an actual state of being, or even as a belief system, creates all kinds of problems. It does not allow people to be the best that they can be. The book Scarcity outlines this phenomenon in exquisite detail. I highly recommend it. It also makes it obvious that lack of money is not the real issue.

This issue here is that “Money” is not the problem we face. The fact is, money is just a representation of value. Value comes in many forms and has many different effects on the world. The problem is lack of understanding of what “value” is.

For example:

If I get up in the morning and make my spouse a coffee, I have provided value to her. She values the coffee, she values the time she saved not having to make it herself, she values the act of service from me, and she values the extra few minutes of sleep she may have experienced.

Just by my efforts, I have created value. This value mostly came out of thin air. Yes, the coffee wasn’t free, and the coffee maker wasn’t either. Neither is the electricity or the house I live in.  My time and effort created value. My knowledge of how to make coffee created value. Through human effort, ingenuity, and imagination, we are constantly creating more value all the time. It never ends. Through scientific innovation and a never ending thirst for more, the human race is always creating more value just by solving problems and finding new ways to serve others. 

This perpetual creation of value brings into existence the tangible and the intangible. We build roads, and cities and rocket ships. We create laws and rules and institutions. We create these things to bring stability, safety and structure to our otherwise hostile world. Having these things available to us is valuable. Many of the things we create have lasting value, just as many things have temporary value. Yet, there is always room for more. We are far from a perfect society and we are far from perfect as a species. So there is always room for more value to be created. 

Just as there is always a need and a desire for more value, there is always someone out there willing to find a way to provide it. We call these people entrepreneurs. They are the ones who look for problems that need a solution and try to find a way to make it happen. They combine all the resources they have available to bring forth this value into reality. They use, time, effort, money, people, expertise and tools to create a new value proposition. Because the perception of value is relative, they take the chance that people will value the thing they created appropriately and exchange value in return for it. 

Money

As it becomes cumbersome to exchange goods or services or time or favours all the time, we use money instead. Money represents all of these things in a nice easy compact form. We exchange money to represent time, or effort, or expertise. We exchange money to represent material goods, time, or specialised skill. 

Money is only representing value, and value is always being created. Therefore, there is infinite money. We hear people complaining that the dollar is not worth what it once was, and that is true. Inflation is more about the buying power of a dollar than the “cost” of things going up. They are always printing more money. But to a certain degree they have to, as there is more value in the world to be represented.  Of course this is going to happen. 

It is similar to company shares. If a company grows large enough, eventually their shares become very valuable. In some cases, they start to become too expensive for most people to buy, and the company suffers from not enough investment dollars being injected into the business. So they do a stock split. This means they double the number of shares available and decrease the cost per share by half. So if you owned 50 shares of XYZ company and each are was worth $100, a stock split would mean you now have 100 shares each valued at $50. The total ‘value” of your shares is the same, but now there are more shares in circulation. More shares in circulation means more opportunity for more people to share in the wealth and prosperity of that company. 

The world economy is no different. The more “money” there is, the more money that is available for anyone who is willing to create value and provide that product or service to the world. There is always more problems to solve. There is always a reason to strive for better. 

Provide Value

We can make as much money as we desire as long as we understand that the price we need to pay for that money is value in direct proportion to the amount of money we are seeking. As my good friend Rod Burylo says in “The Wealthy Buddhist”,  If we can provide exceptional amounts of value to an exceptional number of people we will receive an exceptional amount of money in return. You must do one or both of these things. It is a simple concept, but not an easy one to execute.

Accepting that we can create value helps us to understand that there is more than enough to go around because there is infinite value to be created, thus, infinite money. It also tempers the “dog eat dog” paradigm where we are competing for finite resources and are willing to do anything to “win” at the game of money. There is plenty to go around, so we can try to cooperate. Competition vs. Cooperation  is the main theme of my latest book, “We Can Save The World..but there’s no money in it”. There is room for both philosophies in the world. In fact, competition and cooperation are both necessary and complimentary ideals and should be in every persons toolbox. 

As I mentioned earlier, scarcity can be defined as a “lack of money” - but it might just be a result of you providing a “lack of value” to the world. If that sounds harsh, it is supposed to. It has been argued that people only value you for what you can do for them (See this article). Sadly this is mostly true. But if you know that, then you have gained a valuable insight into how you can change your circumstances. Find ways to provide more value. 

I wish you the best in your journey to financial freedom and I am doing my part to provide you with as much information and support as I can give. My articles are focused on the philosophy of money and the money mindset. My books and courses are more practical guides on how to build wealth and invest wisely. Either way, I am earnestly trying to provide value as I feel that it is the only true way to wealth. You cannot be focused on what you are receiving, you have to focus on what you are giving.

The world demands value for value. The system cannot work without it.