Where did my tuition go? Where did my tuition come from?
What has my tuition bought before this? And what will my tuition buy?
As I looked at the stacks of physical money over my past 3 semesters (5$ bills, 2$ coins, and 1$ coins) I was thinking about the energy I have put into getting the approximately $8,000 i have paid over my last 3 semesters. Not the energy of physically collecting and gathering this amount of money, but the hours of labor and work I did to earn a good chunk of it. Some of it was obtained by signing a piece of paper to the bank, to ensure my repayment, where they were able to “create” an amount in my name that was not there ( in my pocket, or in circulation) the day before.
I think about the
hundreds, possibly thousands of transactions for goods and services that
were
exchanged for these pieces of paper and metal before they got to my hand. I wonder
whose
hands have touched them? And whose hands they will touch?
The majority of
people who touch the bills will likely be in Canada, because it is
Canadian money. I think about the borders of Canada, and I think about the
value and concept of money. “Canadian borders” shape our country, divide us
from other countries, but regardless of the country there is always social
class at the root of capital, dividing humans. A five dollar bill, a Toonie or Loonie is an amount
that someone from any background would likely hold in their hand at one point or another – I
want these pieces of currency, once in recirculation, to be available to as many people as
possible.
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So often in the 21st century we don’t
see physical money; transactions
are done on computers, within
tiny machines, transferred from card to card - it’s
too easy to not only spend money that isn’t physical,
but money that we don’t
actually have.
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We are told we need certain services, things, and stuff to fill our lives, because that is ‘happiness’ … right? At least that’s what modern culture, or, advertising tells me. For some people, wealth is happiness. For others, money will help them lay stepping-stones on a path to find happiness. Sometimes I think about a community of people living off the land, making their own clothes, trading skills, goods and experiences instead of pieces of paper – but wait... isn’t that the origin of “honest” money – before the twisted monster of constant debt grabbed hold of the system of today? Before the banks (banks = the people who create money by typing it into a computer), became the largest earner. |
*How are the people who actually create all the real wealth in the world in debt to the people who lend out the things that represent the wealth?
Maybe the message within the third option that I am drawn to is the
idea of community learning and sharing with people as a mode of exchange; an
education.