The dictionary says that money is a medium of exchange.

Okay?

An exchange of what?

If I give you two green pieces of paper with 20 printed on them, that's 40 bucks.

And in exchange for that, you mow my lawn, what is it that we have actually exchanged?

Well, the answer is not work.

You could sweat for an hour using a pushing mower or an easy 10 minutes on a riding mower,

and I don't care, it's still worth 40 bucks to me.

So we're not charging money for how much effort you put into the job,

and we're not charging money for your time either. You know, the Mona Lisa took about 12 years to finish.

It's insured for about $800 million. If I spend 24 years painting a woman's face, that does not mean that that painting

is going to be twice as much as the Mona Lisa.

So, we're not exchanging work and we're not exchanging time.

What we're exchanging is value.

I've got more money than time.

You've got more time than money.

We both have something of value and we both have something that we want.

So who determines that freshly cut grass has $40 worth the value?

Who actually sets the price?

Well, in a free society, a capitalist society, we both do.

You could charge $400 to mow my lawn, but I'm not going to pay $400.

You're not the only person out there mowing lawns.

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