Money is certainly an interesting thing. Without it, of course, the world as we know it could not exist. Personally, I love reading stories about the days when people traded what they either grew on their own land, or made with their own hands, for needed items that they simply could not survive without. Luxuries were things like coffee, hair bows and maybe even shoelaces. People managed to get by with the crops they grew and the products they could make from those crops. Animals were hunted, not only for their meat, but for their fur, their skins, their bones, just about everything was used.

I just finished reading a wonderful book to one of my sons. It takes place in the mid-1700s, before the United States declared independence from England. It is written in the form of a diary, by a girl about 12 years old. She lives on a farm with her family somewhere in what is now known as Pennsylvania, not too far from what later developed into Philadelphia. We hear from the girl that there is a lot of trouble between the white settlers and the Indians, and she is frightened that she will one day be taken by surprise by Indians while she is walking between home and school, or when she is in the garden of her farm, and either be taken prisoner or killed. Soon that is exactly what happens, and her and her brother are taken captive, and we learn in a very intimate, first-hand way about how a society can live in amazing harmony with their environment, with no need for money. The girl is treated as a part of the family that adopts her, and she learns to love her new way of life. And I believe it is actually based on a true story.

In this book the life of the Indians is depicted beautifully, but it is certainly a life of struggle with nature, in many ways not really that different from the life she was already leading as the daughter of a farmer in which many times nature won. Compared to what life is like in America of the 21st century, it is clear that this life-style, where money is only minimally needed, cannot allow a society to go much beyond the most basic development.

So here we are today. In a world which needs money to fuel our progress towards a future of faster, easier, cleaner, healthier, for better or for worse. And we are not just talking about simply paying for something with money, but in today's economic world there are so many different ways of using money. Our culture is quite clever, and as soon as there is any extra money we look for ways to make that extra bit work for us to get us some more. This desire for more money is the oil lubricating the engine of development. Companies want to grow, and to grow they need to borrow money. They sell stocks, come up with all kinds of methods of enticing the money into their hands. Savvy businessmen are constantly inventing new investment strategies to improve returns and minimize risk. Today's financial marketplace include hedge funds, stocks, bonds, mortgages, PIPEs and a heck of a lot more ways to get your money working.