Ascent of Money

Money is virtually synonymous to the progress that mankind has made. Like it or not, the vast majority of the modern world capitalizes on the innovations that the rest of mankind has made. At the dawn of civilization, it used to be the case that money controlled only certain sectors of society, but now it is virtually ubiquitous with everything that we consume. Almost every aspect of our American society is strictly regimented to fit the standards of capitalism, but nevertheless is formatted under a free-market system, where the general idea is that "anyone can make what they will and achieve what they can", supposedly. This idea is what drives the world's financial markets, and allows for billions upon billions of dollars to flow in circulation across the world. Finance is now one of the largest monetary sectors, and around 1/13 of the money payed to employees in the United States goes to finance. This contrasts sharply with past eras, where total job output for the finance sector was almost three times less, such as in the case of Harvard University, where only 5% of graduates in 1970 went into finance compared to 15% in 1990. This extreme change reflects the power that finance has today, but this also reflects the extreme risk that catastrophic events can pose upon financial sectors, such as the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, where the resulting fallout and conflict caused the Dow Jones to fall 14%.

All of this information is given in The Ascent of Money, but the real interesting information that I received was how finance influenced the world even outside of its pure monetary share of the world. This includes its influence in mathematics or the arts (art in the Western world would have never had the influence it does today if not for financial patronizing of artistic works in the Renaissance). Additionally, as others have mentioned, finance has influenced cultural ideas of different races and ethnicities, such as Jews in Europe. All of this may prove that money may be the root of all evil, or that it controls a man. Nevertheless, the involvement with it is an inescapable part of worldwide society. Additionally, investigating the history of it can be almost as rewarding as receiving it itself. And I really can't think of any other item so abstract yet so vivid, real, and powerful.

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