What Is Money ?

Question

OK Giraffe --  let's take this tack, and maybe get a look at greed.  

Staying under two hundred words if possible, write a poem or prose piece using these words:

 

 security

sharing

global economy

symbol

greed

justify

useless

childhood allowance

monkey experiment

laugh

Answer 1

Prose????  Under 200 words?????  God, you piss me off, so I didn't use the list.

MONEY IS TRADE (no more, no less)

In our younger ages we traded
arrowheads for bananas, marbles for toads.
A matter of worth, we carried our sheep to market
to trade for some vegetables and soap.

Then someone thought of coins.
The money traders gave us 5 coins for one pig
and it could be used for anything I wanted
and we all bought into this illusion of worth - money.

We understood in that age.  Very simple trade
until they came up with cash - an illusion of an illusion.
Then they put the money on plastic with interest rates
and pretty holograms to emphasize the illusion.

Now we don't understand it anymore with Federal Reserves,
stock prices, taxes, treasury departments, and more nonsense.
I don't get it and they seem to be
using my confusion to bolster their greed. 

Comments

ooooo - kay  .  .  I did say "if possible" to leave options open.  My objective was to write something about greed,  not so much Wall Street's greed, but greed as it lives within each of us.   Maybe I should rename the challenge?

---

Don't change or rename it.  My entry was a 'tongue in cheek' mock rebellion.  I do think that one tool of greedy people is to confuse their prey.  I'll give you a serious one, too.

Answer 2

Sharing in the security of our stable global economy

I have every symbol of greed I can justify.

When as a child, my parents thought it wise

to give me a childhood allowance of fifteen cents.

You thought it was useless. But it allowed me

to laugh at those who thought so, too.

I saved that fifteen cents and invested in

monkey experiments and today...

I sleep in a bed of twenties and fifties,

changing the sheets twice a night.

Ha ha ha, money is my justification.

Make it and spend it as I see fit.

Ahhh, money.

Comments

Good one, EmyO.  "Ahhh, money" -- sure catches the feeling, doesn't it ?

Answer 3

193 words including title...

 

Monkey business

　

Stuck on the island of greed far away from the global economy the monkey’s experimented with sharing bananas. The biggest monkey had the biggest horde of yellow bananas and the tiny monkey had only the childhood allowance his mommy monkey gave him which was two green bananas a week.

The biggest monkey grew old and forgetful and lost most of his stash to the elements. Afraid of losing all of his bananas he entrusted their security to his brother who lived in the tree down the street. This turned out to be a losing and useless exercise of brain power when his brother ate all of the bananas on the first night.

The little monkey watched the carnage of the brother wolfing down handfuls of bananas and laughed.

The brother monkey stopped eating abruptly and bounded over to the little monkey. He picked up a large limb and beat the little monkey to death feeling justified in the process.

A brilliant light beamed down on the island and an elephant floated to the ground landing on the biggest monkey and his brother squashing them both.

The moral of the story is…..sharing.