Social and Psychological Value of Money - Material Value of Money

Material Value of Money

Human beings exert themselves in productive movements which release energy and produce results. Physical need moves them. Mind prompts them to work productively. The body converts its energy into work and enjoys the fruits of its own labor. Money is a means to convert the fruits of human labor into a form that can be stored indefinitely, transported readily, and transferred easily to another person in exchange for goods or services. Subjectively for each individual, it acquired value because it represented the use value of his or her human energy applied in productive work and the goods and services produced by that work. Money became a symbol to represent the value of work, the things it produced, the property on which it was produced and into which surplus production may be converted.