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# Why Does Money Have Value?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0l70dzmN.m3u8" -->
## Video: Why Does Money Have Value?

[Watch (HLS stream): Why Does Money Have Value?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0l70dzmN.m3u8) (1:29)

![Why Does Money Have Value?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0l70dzmN/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-03-03. in Dumb Money, Taylor Tepper explains why people think money is worth stuff._


---

Jul 27, 2023 7:43 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

[Dumb Money: How Many Bank Accounts Should I Have?](/video/IelaiGts/)

### Dumb Money: How Many Bank Accounts Should I Have?

[Dumb Money: What Kind of Emergency Fund Should I Have?](/video/Th9Zpp14/)

### Dumb Money: What Kind of Emergency Fund Should I Have?

[Dumb Money: Why Do Companies Have 401\(k\)s?](/video/vrqRyDV0/)

### Dumb Money: Why Do Companies Have 401(k)s?

---


## Transcript

Today on Dumb Money, why does our money have value? I'm here to answer the money questions you think are too silly, stupid or scary to ask. I'm Taylor Tepper, and this is Dumb Money. Money. Our money has value because we say it does. That's really it. This might be a little abstract, but a dollar bill is just a useless piece of green paper in your wallet unless everyone believes that it's actually worth a dollar. Green pieces of paper aren't like chunks of silver or gold. You can't boil them down to make anything of value. Nixon officially took us off the gold standard in 1971. Cash means something because we as a civilization agree that it does.

That's why I feel comfortable taking money as compensation for my work as money rather than gold or timber or something else. I know that my landlord, or dry cleaner, or favorite restaurant will take the cash that my company gives me in exchange for rent, clean clothes, and food. But remember, money is just a good like anything else, and goods are subject to the laws of supply and demand. If you have a lot of widgets and no one actually wants to buy a widget, then those widgets will be worthless. The same is true of our money. If there's too much cash out there, that cash will be used to buy things.

And then prices on goods like a four star meal will rise quickly and each dollar won't have that much value. That's called inflation. The opposite, deflation is just as. Nasty. So why does are money have value? It's because I say it does. [ MUSIC ]

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