Money, Money, Money, it’s a Rich Man’s World

I watched Mamma Mia 2 a couple weeks ago and have had Abba songs stuck in my head ever since. I love the Mamma Mia movies so much, despite the myriad of flaws and plot holes (how is Cher Meryl Streep’s mom?? They’re practically the same age! Why is Meryl so old for 40?? Young Harry is NOT a headbanger as the first movie implied!). They’re just so lovely and happy and make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They also inspire fun post titles 🙂

I recently asked my boyfriend if he had any fun fact ideas for me, or anything he was interested in reading about. The only suggestion he came up with was ‘money’. At which I scoffed and told him he was no help. But as the days passed I found myself thinking more about the topic of money and decided he was right, it is actually a fascinating subject. So fascinating, in fact, that I’m going to have to be really strong and hold myself back from saying way, way too much. As last week was the boyfriend’s birthday, it is in honour of him that I present this Fun Fact Friday: Money.

Money: We Need It

Money is important to all of us. If you don’t believe it is, you’re probably lying to yourself. None of us want to appear materialistic (ok, most of us), but the fact is that you need money to survive in today’s world. You’ve paid off your mortgage, but you still have to pay property taxes. You choose to walk everywhere, you still have to buy shoes. Even if you choose to live completely off the grid, the middle of the forest somewhere, avoiding property taxes, growing your own garden, building your own house, hunting for food.. are you making your own clothes? With what material? What tools did you use to build your home? What are you sleeping on, cooking with, entertaining yourself with? You see my point.

Money: A History

The truth is, money has always been used, albeit in a very different format than we see today. It all began with bartering. I’ll trade you two cows for your 12 chickens, these 3 pelts for those nine eggs, my marriageable daughter for 2 oxen, a lamb and 3 pigs.. Glad that last one has gone out of style.

The problem with this style of bartering is that you don’t always have what others need. If I have a surplus of cows, but I really need some wheat, and you have a surplus of wheat, but you already have a lot of cows, well, that doesn’t really get us anywhere, does it? Now if I have gold that I want to trade for wheat, you can then use that gold to buy something other than cows, say perhaps a marriageable daughter. Hence, money.

Money: Today

If I were writing an essay, or even a particularly impressive post, this is where I’d explain how paper money works, the valuation, economy, etc. As it happens, I am in no way qualified to comment on any of that. And let’s be honest, it’s not exactly fun.. 

So instead, I present to you some fun things you can buy around the world for the equivalent of around $1 (USD). **Full disclosure, I have not actually purchased these things, and $1 is most definitely an estimate.. but you get the idea 🙂

1. A 20 minute foot massage in the Philippines
2. A gallon of gas in Venezuela
3. 40 quail eggs in Vietnam
4. A full day bike rental in Vietnam
5. Probably lots of things in Vietnam
6. I want to go to Vietnam
7. 2 pounds of potatoes in Gambia
8. 7 minutes of parking in Los Angeles… and I thought Toronto was expensive!
9. A visit to the cinema in Turkmenistan
10. All the public transport you could ask for in Lithuania
11. The ability to pee in a nice, clean public bathroom in Finland (or a gross one for the same price)
12. Over 200,000 Venezuelan bolivar (because who doesn’t want to carry around a giant wad of cash!)
    • This is actually far less exciting than it sounds; there has been a lot of economic instability over the last few years resulting in high inflation

Some bonus money facts:

• The currency in Bolivia is called Bolivian Bolivianos, which makes me so happy
• There are over 20 countries that use ‘dollars’ as the national currency (as opposed to pounds, pesos, etc.)
• 7 countries (including Ecuador and East Timor) do not have a local currency, and have adopted the USD as the official currency
• Zimbabwe hasn’t had its own official currency since 2009; instead it has 8 official currencies from around the world (USD, Chinese yuan and British pounds, to name a few)
  • Prior to abandoning it’s own currency, Zimbabwe was issuing banknotes of up to 1 trillion Zimbabwean dollars.. 1 TRILLION!!

And finally, some Canadian money facts:

• Canada (and some other countries, but I’ll focus on Canada, because that’s where I live) uses plastic/polymer banknotes that can go through the wash, can’t be ripped in half, have a see through strip, a hologram AND tactile features
• A $1 coin is called a loonie, and a $2 coin is called a toonie!
• The Canadian Mint has some pretty cool collectors coins, including, but not limited to:
  • Glow in the dark coins
  • Coins with Swarovski crystals
  • Mosaic coins
  • Disney Princess, Justice League, Star Trek & Star Wars coins

I’ve never really given much thought to coin collecting.. but now I want them allllllll!!