Why do we have money? I mean, at the end of the day it’s just paper with the Queen on it??? It gets wasted anyways.

Question: Why do we have money? I mean, at the end of the day it's just paper with the Queen on it??? It gets wasted anyways. Other countries are wasting it on far to extravagant things. And they borrow from each other... And why are there poor countries? Like Africa? And some Middle eastern countries?
- Keywords:
  africa,
  borrow,
  currency,
  eastern,
  extravagant,
  money,
  poor,
  wasted,
  wasting
Asked by caseym to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 22 Jun 2011.
- Ed Morrison answered on 21 Jun 2011:
  
  Before money was invented, people used to barter for goods. So for example, a chicken farmer might barter a chicken for a bag of rice for a rice farmer and then both can have chicken curry for dinner. Money is a symbol that allows for more flexible trade than bartering. So £100 is kind of like a token that is equivalent to 20 chickens, or 10 hours of labour, or two pairs of shoes.
  
  Countries very enormously in how wealthy they are. And even within countries some people have lots of money and some have almost none. Over half the world lives on less than $2 a day, including several African countries. I can’t imagine what that must be like. The reasons for this are complex but it partly because rich and powerful countries have invaded poor weak ones in the past and taken their resources. Also some countries, like many Middle Eastern ones, are actually quite rich because they have valuable natural resources like oil.
- Steven Daly answered on 21 Jun 2011:
  
  Good answer from Ed. I think that the whole system of capitalism we have now is fundamentally flawed and needs to be changed. Everything is about chasing money, and that comes at the expense of poorer nations. Money tends to flow from the poor to the rich, when in reality it should be the other way around.
- Vera Weisbecker answered on 21 Jun 2011:
  
  Great answes Ed and Steven. Money has the practical value of not needing 5 camels handy when you want to buy a house, so to speak.
  
  I agree that the poverty in other coutries is often due to the fact that richer nations have taken their resources (or are still taking them), and also that richer nations refuse to pay what would be fair prices in their own country for goods. It’s a complex issue but like Ed and Steven said, it needs sorting out badly!
- Sam Tazzyman answered on 22 Jun 2011:
  
  Part of the problem is that the current system is difficult to change because the people in charge are the rich and powerful, who of course are doing well out of the current system and so don’t want to change it!