“I can live well alone!” is not correct. If I live alone, I can survive to some extent, but ultimately, it is hard to survive, and “living well” is even more challenging. This is because the economic principle is established not by ‘alone’ but by ‘many people.’ If I live well, it means that someone has become poor because of me or is living well with me. The fact that through value exchange, or transaction, we can meet each other’s needs and store the surplus from that production is both true and real. Trading is not done in isolation. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
There is a country of 607 islands in the West Pacific, Micronesia. One of the islands, “Yap Islands,” used limestone as a currency. The monetary unit is “fei”. Big stones, oh no, big money, 3.6 meters in diameter and weighed 3.5 tons. The bigger and heavier is a more expensive price, because of the harder the carving. The peculiar thing was that when the people moved the stone for trading, they directly moved it with a canoe, and no one marked the money after the transaction. In the meantime, a rich man had to deal with someone and he met the storm while carrying the stone money in a canoe. Securing his survival, he had to throw his money out of the canoe into the water. When he met the counterparty with an empty hand, no sooner did they confirm the force majeure case than the counterparty confirmed that the villagers additionally recognized the value of the sunk money in the water and approved the transaction. Then, the existence of the sunk stone money was recorded on a wooden board,...