Somewhere along the line, things have turned upside down, so that money is no longer valued according to goods or services; rather, goods and services are valued in terms of money - tangibles surrendered for the intangible.

Don't underestimate the value of Money

Early 20th century (before the era of the Federal Reserve Note): "In silver payable to the bearer on demand"

Money is a medium. In and of itself, money is worthless. It possesses value as an instrument of barter or commerce, but money is not a product, and generating money from money is not wealth. People use money to purchase goods or services, and the worth of the money that passes from buyer to seller is measured by a standard. Since time immemorial human civilization has used gold and silver as money, and in the latter days relied on a gold standard for the issue of paper money. But the real value of money is measured by the goods that it can purchase. It used to be that a dollar, for instance, was worth x amount of silver or x amount of food or cloth or x amount of seeds or equipment for planting, or x amount of land.

In 1971, President Nixon abandoned gold as backing for the US dollar and closed the "gold window" to stop dollars being converted to gold and taken out from the USA at a time when the US deficit and inflation from war spending was soaring. However, the manufacturing sector was roaring; US goods were in high demand at home and abroad, and if the dollar was not backed by gold, then it was taken for granted that it was backed by government assurances and the ever-expanding economic growth - the American pie. Then too, the rise of OPEC and its pricing of oil in US dollars buoyed the dollar's influence as the major international currency, trusted as good as gold (if not better). But in the last 20 years especially, manufacturers removed their operations from American soil to foreign lands - goods were increasingly produced elsewhere, and in the last 10 years, the services sector suffered a significant loss of jobs to outsourcing in other countries such as India and the Philippines. So whereas the USA previously produced and sold its goods to the rest of the world, it became more and more dependent on importing goods, paid for by US dollars or treasury notes redeemable some years in the future. As the USA deficit ballooned, the Federal Reserve Bank created more and more money. As a result, money has gotten out of control. The US dollar is now not only not backed by gold; it is no longer backed by a healthy manufacturing base, and the government is so far in the red, that it cannot possibly fulfil its assurances to pay out every dollar in circulation or every treasury note.

Somewhere along the line, things have turned upside down, so that money is no longer valued according to goods or services; rather, goods and services are valued in terms of money - tangibles surrendered for the intangible. Instead of the dollar being valued according to gold and silver, gold and silver are priced in terms of the dollar, a fiat currency. Manufacturers hand over real goods in exchange for paper money or promissory notes, and real services are paid for by pieces of paper which are basically no more than "I-O-U"s being passed from one person to another - from a customer to the grocer, from the grocer to the wholesaler, from the wholesaler to the factories and farms, from the factories and farms to the hired hands and to the banks, and then the hired hands become customers who hand the money back to the grocer, the bank hands money to the grocer, the farm, the wholesaler, the customer.... like a giant Ponzi scheme.

And the trend is moving from paper to vapor. More and more monetary transactions are electronic - digital money comprised of binary code on computer servers. And since money can be printed or created out of nothing, more and more of it without restriction, the prices of goods and services have become inflated more and more. The aim has shifted from producing and trading goods and services to making money - of which, though certainly not scarce in supply, there never seems to be enough to meet the rising costs of goods and services that have to be procured in order to produce one's own goods and services in turn. In fact, money is created from debt - though deceptively the most common instrument of debt is called a "credit card".

The irony of this is that people are driven to earn money - so that they can pay for goods and services that they could have provided for themselves or obtained by direct trade.

Of course direct trade doesn't always work, such as when you cannot find what you need in your immediate community. Trading a bushel of home-grown zuccinis for that book from Amazon.com is not going to be practical. Try paying your children's college fees with gallons of fresh milk from your dairy herd. That is where money comes in handy. But it should be something of equivalent worth - gold or silver or other metal. Fiat money encourages speculation and inflation.

Now the US dollar is going the way of the Titanic, and the same persons who created and exacerbated the problem are putting their heads together to come up with a basket of currencies or a new currency of the same composition. But whatever currency the Central Banks, IMF, Federal Reserve Bank and other powers that be designate as the dollar's replacement on the international stage, the problem remains: real goods and services change hands in return for papers and promises made of air, whose value rises and falls on speculation and greedy manipulation. This type of profiteering is responsibility for market volatility, and destabilizes local and global economies, and poses a threat to national security.

What can the ordinary man/woman do about it? Of course it is impracticable for most of us to disengage from the world, go off-grid and eke out a living from the earth, grow our own food and cotton or wool for clothing, castor oil for lamp light and live as the Amish do. They actually do it very well - putting the rest of us to shame, in fact. But even if we cannot do as they do, we can pause and reflect, "What is it I'm working for?" Is earning money a worthwhile goal? What about happiness? Money cannot buy love and happiness, and at the end of the day you can't take it with you - nor can you be sure that it will not be misused or lost by the ones to whom you leave it. Too often, people persuade themselves that their happiness depends on money and the things it can buy, but real happiness eludes them as they are struck down by disease, old age and death. So an intelligent person will conclude, "If this is all there is - if everything ends in misery and disappointment, then why should I endeavor so hard? Better to sit down and do nothing, be content with whatever comes of its own accord than expend all my energy for something that is doomed to failure and destruction."

But more intelligent still is the person who inquires: athatho brahma jijñasa: "Having attained this human birth, now is the time to inquire what is Brahman, what is the Absolute Truth, the source of everything, the ultimate goal of life." [Vedanta-sutra]

We pass our lives maintaining this body and its extensions - family, friends, community, nation - looking after bodily necessities: eating, sleeping, mating and defending, but the animals are also engaged in these same activities, so what sets the human being apart from the animals? The human being has a higher developed consciousness and intelligence with which he can realize that "In the end I have to leave this body and everybody else behind, so let me inquire what is the actual goal of life and how to attain it." The Krishna consciousness movement gives everyone the opportunity to come and inquire about Brahman and ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna.

The whole activity of Krishna consciousness is putting everything in its proper place and perspective in relation to Krishna. It is not voidism or nullism - Krishna gives practical instruction in Bhagavad-gita how society should be organized, and encourages everyone to perform his duty. With respect to government leaders, they should offer protection to the citizens and take counsel from those who are spiritually qualified - whose service to society is to offer spiritual guidance, education, performance of religious rites and healing. The mercantile class should generate wealth utilizing natural resources like valuable minerals, metals, timber and harvesting crops from the earth, and is charged with looking after the welfare of the cows in particular. Those who possess no particular qualifications are meant to give assistance to the other divisions, and these four divisions are meant to work cooperatively. This is Krishna's prescription for a materially and spiritually progressive society. Krishna also recommends karma-yoga, or activities which are performed with Krishna as the focal point.

yat karoshi yad ashnasi
yaj juhoshi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurushva mad-arpanam

"O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me." [Bhagavad-gita 9.27]

In this way, Krishna consciousness engages everyone and everything. Money is not shunned, material things are not rejected. They are put to use for Krishna.

The solution to the current economic debacle is to restore money to its true value: spend it in Krishna consciousness - in support of temple worship, for printing and distribution of literature propagating the teachings of Krishna consciousness, for prasadam distribution, for sponsoring Hare Krishna Festivals and sankirtan events (congregational chanting of the holy names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare), for development and distribution of multimedia promoting Krishna consciousness, for establishing Krishna conscious centers, farm communities, restaurants, schools, etc.

Instead of money as the perverse object of adoration, it reverts to its proper place as a medium for serving Krishna. Art, music, poetry, philosophy, science, sport, money - Krishna consciousness is the science of engaging everything and everyone, dovetailing it in the service of Krishna, and thereby raising it to its perfection, spiritualizing - Krishna-izing everything and ourselves also.