Any physical object that is suitable for use as a money is small enough to hold in one hand. Any physical object that can be held in one hand can be taken away from its owner against the owner’s will. I hope this is obvious to everyone so I will not belabor the point.
Therefore, since money is a physical object, money can be taken from its owner against the owner’s will. This is true because money is a physical object. It is a consequence of the nature of our money as a physical object.
But what about money in a bank account? Yes, what about your bank account money: can that money be taken from you against your will? I think it can. I believe that the State (some level of government) can legally remove money from your account and transfer that money to another account just as if the money were a physical object. That is because we treat the money in bank and other accounts as if it were a physical object.
What about an embezzler? I believe that an embezzler can remove money from your account against your will. I believe a check forger can remove money from your checking account against your will. I am sure you can think of other ways (legal and illegal) in which money can be removed from your accounts against your will.
If we did not treat the money in your account as if it were a physical object, if you were the only one who could spend your money and if that money ceased to exist when spent, then no one would bother to reduce the numbers in your bank accounts. They would not be able to get possession of your money so reducing the numbers in your accounts would do them no good.
You will note that in every other case of money being removed from your account the party removing the money did so to gain possession of it.
A physical object can also be lost, destroyed or hidden. Therefore, like any other physical object money can be lost or destroyed or hidden. Almost everyone has found currency at one time or another. Therefore there is a good chance that almost everyone has lost money at one time or another. This illustrates another consequence of a money which is a physical object. The Spanish lost whole shiploads of money when the ships sank in storms or in battle. People whose homes are destroyed by fire often have some currency destroyed by that fire.
Now… none of what I have said above is news to you. It is obvious to every functional, competent adult. The point I am hammering home here is that these ways of losing money through force, fraud, or accident are only able to happen because our money is a physical object or is treated as a physical object.
There also is another aspect which you may not have thought about. We all know that we can take money from other people. There is always the temptation to do so because everyone wants and needs money. It is inevitable that with everyone exposed to the knowledge that they can take other people’s money, against their will, by force or fraud that some people – perhaps even almost all people, will, from time to time, yield to that temptation. Even if we do not yield personally to that temptation, we may assist and cooperate with others who do the actual taking. Many corporations and governments find and use illegal and immoral ways of taking the money of others, whether they are individuals or organizations.
These bad consequences are only some of the most obvious. There are many more which are not so obvious, to be described in articles to come. The purpose of these artlcles is to bring to your attention certain aspects of money, most of which you are already aware of, but which you have simply accepted as you accept gravity. Unlike gravity, we can control and change the nature of the money we use.
