What is our most precious currency?
Asked by
bythebay (
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March 4th, 2009
As human beings, we have many valuable attributes & assets. What do think is the most valuable currency we have; time, money, knowledge, compassion, or something altogether different? Why do you feel as you do?
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38 Answers
the human life. you only get one.
Time. We have a finite amount. Where we spend it really counts. Time with you is also the most precious gift that you can give children or loved ones.
Before I read the details I was thinking about how my husband and I had discussed that if there were some doomsday scenario bullets would be a good currency. I guess that is not really the answer you were looking for.
When you use the word currency I imagine something that is valuable for trade. (Tell me if I’m wrong in that assumption.) I would think creativity and ingenuity would be the most valuable human attribute in that instance.
@hearkat Post anyway. I’d like to hear your take on it.
I think time is a very good choice, kudos to @Marina, and I also think knowledge is so important and precious because it is such a necessary part of our human make up in the whole scheme of things. Knowledge is our experiences, our education, and our collection of useful and practical material that we can always rely on for so many different reasons.
I agree, time. But how has no one said sex yet?
Before currency, with currency and afterwards, sex is always a commodity. And until biology stops running our brains it ain’t gonna change.
Well, I’ve always said that time is our most valuable asset, because not only is it finite, but we have no clue how much we get!
And I loved what you wrote about giving it to our children and loved ones, because I really believe that being actively involved in my son’s life made the biggest difference for him; and I observed so many parents that may have been physically present, but weren’t really there for their kids.
In a truly desperate situation clean water can be more valuable than gold.
@Bluefreedom and @Marina Time and Knowledge are great.
Love or Hope. I would not want Time without Love or Hope.
@Judi Actually with a loaded gun one could get clean water…
@Dog ; thus, my first answer.
Our children…
Do you know how much just one of them goes for?!
@all – incredible answers – but some of you seem to be focused on currency in terms of survival. I wasn’t thinking of survival, but more in terms of daily quality of life.
Like Marina, Bluefreedom, asmonet and hearkat said, Time is important, if we’re not aware of it, before we realise we’ll be out of it.
It’s important that we acknowledge time, in the immediate sense, if we don’t I think we tend to become preoccupied with all of the things that we should have done in the past or could be doing in the future without considering what we’re doing right now.
Compassion and caring. Without those two traits in your life, what is it worth? A few hundred dollars?
You buy some fake compassion and caring for a few hundred dollars…
Removing the survival aspect, time is the most important. With no time, you can’t show love, do good. Anything.
Time.
@asmonet Yes, but nothing can really replace real compassion. Time is a very close second for me though. :)
Love, without it nothing else has any real value.
Knowledge. It is necessary to navigate through most areas of life.
Love, knowledge, passion sure.
But something that embodies all of our emotions is music. I couldn’t live without it. At least I couldn’t imagine it. Life would be incredibly dull. Music is the one attribute we have that I am incredibly thankful for.
Currency is by definition: paper and coin money of a country, used as a medium of exchange. With that in mind, I would have to say gold… easy to carry… valued everywhere… can be safely stored.
Love is not a medium of exchange. It is something you share (please agree with this).
Honor is something you have or don’t.
Character is something you have or don’t.
Self-respect is something you should NEVER give up!
Oh well, that’s my opine.
@SherlockPoems: Actually, it has a broad definition.
cur·ren·cy
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural cur·ren·cies
1 a: circulation as a medium of exchange b: general use, acceptance, or prevalence <a story gaining currency> c: the quality or state of being current : currentness
2 a: something (as coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as a medium of exchange b: paper money in circulation c: a common article for bartering d: a medium of verbal or intellectual expression.
@everyone: I am thrilled with the answers you all provided, they are certainly food for thought. I personally think time is our most valuable currency. It can never be regained or recaptured making it scarce and to be treasured. It can also be lost or taken without notice, making it something to be protected. Cheers to you all for being so insightful!
A sense of humor. It’s what seperates us from animals.
that and the whole not being an animal thing
I am having difficulty seeing most of the things named (other than gold) in terms of currency. A currency is a medium of exchange, meaning something that can be passed from one party to another as a way of storing, measuring, standardizing, and transmitting value.
The things mentioned are valuable commodities, all right, but how do you use them as a way of trading value for value? We exchange time for a currency, but how is time itself the currency?
@Jeruba: In simplistic terms (it’s early), the return I get on time well spent is very measurable,as is the time I give. I give (or trade my time) with great care to achieve optimum return. It is finite, unpredictable and of great value. did that make any sense?
@bythebay, not to me, sorry. I see my time as the most valuable thing I have, but I can’t store it, distribute it, or pass it to you in exchange for something else, except in a symbolic way or a direct way. I can’t literally accumulate a quantity of my own hours and minutes and hand them over to you so that I have less time and you have more time, as I could, for example, with the tomatoes that grow in my back yard.
The symbolic way is the medium of exchange. The time is the thing of value for which exchange is made. When I go to work, I exchange my time for a medium of exchange (money) that I can then spend elsewhere. If I exchange it directly (this for that), it’s barter, and it does not require a medium of exchange. A medium of exchange is a method of storage and delivery, sort of like a battery for value. That’s what those words mean to me.
If I were answering what is our most precious commodity, I would without hesitation say “time.”
@Jeruba: I see exactly what you’re saying.
@bythebay, I think we are in solid agreement on the sentiment. It’s only a difference of language.
@Jeruba, absolutely. The value of our time is something I think we both are very clear on. It’s lovely to spend time on here with you.
Time. Spend it wisely.
-Sellz
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