Personal Development and Study Skills - Coursework Example

Personal Development and Study Skills Personal Development and Study Skills Money has a significant role in peoples’ daily lives, and it has a considerable influence upon the history of human societies, but this influence is normally neglected by people (Davies 2005, p. 13). Fortunately enough, there is nothing esoteric or hard concerning the study of money in society, plus there is no need to become a sociologist or an economic historian to do this. We live in a world where getting any product costs us money and in most of the cases, the best product win, the best performance win and people with the highest ability or best judgment and ability come out on top. This is today’s code of existence and money is the symbol (Davies 2005, p. 13). The use of money is overly universal in today’s world making it easy to overlook its significance, without much thought of where it came from or how it works. Furthermore, the growth of electronic modes of payment, as well as the fall of the application of cash in recent years has proved that there is nothing indisputable concerning the forms that money assumes. Also, the recent ‘Credit Crunch’ reveals what can occur when money malfunctions (McKinnon 1973, p. 78). Until the 17th century BC, when coins were first used in trade, commodities were utilised as exchange tools. Other commodities were even utilised as store of value meaning that tools, which were kept for long periods cost more (Fortin 2008, p. 884). However, which the invention of coins, all these functions were fulfilled more conveniently. Also, their application was fundamental to the development of state formation, as well as trade in the medieval and ancient worlds. The application of money took a further step with the spread of paper money together with banking in the modern years, creating the foundation for the financial systems that stand today (Davies 2005, p. 14). This paper will discuss the effect of money in society dwelling on the importance of money in our society relating it to signs of authority and power, as well as communicating through money. In order for people to live their lives and achieve their goals, they need a number of things. In order to survive, humans needs food, shelter, clothing, tools to defend themselves from other men and animals or other elements (Fortin 2008, p. 885). Definitely people can produce what they need by themselves, if they have the power to, but it is not practical, only is simple societies. However, in more complex societies, our normal societies, no one is able to produce everything for him or herself and achieve their goals at the same time. That is why division of labour came to exist in the first place. Every member of a society specializes in producing something that they are skilled at then depend on others for what they cannot produce. This dependence came to existence when people started producing things in surplus, more than what they need so they chose to share it with others (Fortin 2008, p. 885). As time went by, it became harder to find traders who want to trade with some certain products since they became uninterested in what some of these traders produced. That is when money came into play. Money permitted merchants to prolong the buying part of the trade by allowing them to postpone usage till he finds products, which he or she wants or needs. Money allows a producer to use only later that which he or she wants or needs (Fortin 2008, p. 886). If we come up with a wide definition of money, then it is something that is generally endorsed as payment of goods or services. It is basically an exchange medium. The capacity of money to circulate among vast geographical regions and large multitude of people implies that it is normally utilised through issuing powers and promote themselves, their aim and values. Money can echo issues of personal appearance, strength of empire, religious belief and/or even re-enforce pledges made to a populace. It is significant to look into actual life events in order to note the power money has over people (Gbadamosi & Joubert 2005, p. 761). For example, an average “B” secondary school student normally faces a much more difficult time getting into a good university compared to a child from a wealthy family (Fortin 2008, p. 886). When money comes into play, every student who comes from a rich background all they need to do is maintain an average grade. Having money allows them to work less hard, but they still succeed in life, normally because they are granted a much higher position to start due to references from their acquaintances or alumnae of the university. Power and money do not only apply to college students. Also, children from wealthy families find is much easier to get good grades because maybe their parents can afford getting good educators who know the value of education in someone’s life (Gbadamosi & Joubert 2005, p. 762). Most probably, such children are bought for encyclopedias, computers and other significant tools that make it much easier for them to achieve higher grades. In major cities the United States and also the United Kingdom, safety is one of the biggest factors when it comes to peoples’ lifestyles. Rich households can afford to live in nice and safe neighbourhoods without ever worrying about their safety. However, this is different from families that live in unsafe neighbourhoods filled with gangs and thieves. They live there due to their economic status (Kohn 1998, p. 26). Residing in a bad and unsafe community makes peoples’ lives much harder. These people always worry concerning making it safely to their residences. However, homes with money to spare can afford good security systems and others even hire watchmen to watch over their estates. This assists the people to live their lives much more at ease (Gbadamosi & Joubert 2005, p. 763). Residing in a safe environment makes peoples’ lives much easier to achieve success, which, on the other hand, grants them power. Money is usually a factor in a majority of things that happen around the world on a daily basis (Kohn 1998, p. 26). When someone has money, they tend to have more bargaining power over every deal they are involved. Even if a small minority tends to believe that money does not influence peoples’ lives, if you do your best in life to get that money, then you will be closer to achieve success than someone who chose not to work hard. Minorities argue that money cannot buy or stand for everything. The famous saying goes, “Money cannot buy love.” However, this argument only fails upon deeper inspection. In today’s world, money is essentially a requirement for life, a respectful life as some scholars and sociologists have put it. Money will make someone’s life have more dignity (Wilhelm et al. 1993, p. 197). Others would argue that this is a mere illusion/dream of those who look for money hard. However, yet again, some sociologists have disputed this by saying that people who utter these words do not understand the true worth of money. Others claim that money creates power and power leads to corruption. Therefore, absolute power is totally corrupt, according to these individuals (Wilhelm et al. 1993, p. 198). But, we can take for example some of the richest names of earth such as Bill Gate, Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey among others, they have the money, yet not case of corruption has ever arisen about them. Yet, on a daily basis we hear about thefts; these thefts are from people who lack something: they lack the money to buy what they have stolen. Saying money is a source of corruption is perhaps a matter of lack of knowledge as Fortin (2008, p. 884) puts it. People are corrupt because they need money, not because money made them corrupt. They also understand the value money has in their lives. Before we get into the reflection part, we can argue that the power of money, for sure, is that it leads to happiness, dignity, respect, esteem, confidently and last but not least, love. The simple truth is that there are a vast majority of individuals have refused to consider the power of money and that is why some of them are facing a lot of challenges now. On to my individual reflection, I learn that money certainly has power in today’s society. No matter how much people, a small minority deny this claim, money, for sure, has power. The research looked into a number of researches that have been carried out by significant sociologists regarding the topic of the paper and all of them were supporting the claim. Before the research, if someone would have asked me if money was important in someone’s life I would have said yes without any support of my claim, but now I have material fact, which supports this claim. I liked the way other members participated in the group work we got to learn a lot from each other. There were many arguments presented, which at least one can understand where they were coming from. This helped me understand the two views of the story. However, in the end money came out as a significant tool for any society and; thus, is significant for people to endorse in order to develop their lives. References Davies, G 2005, History of money, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Diener, E & Oishi, S 2000, Money and happiness: income and subjective well-being across nations, Oxford University Press, New York. Fortin, N M 2008, The gender wage gap among young adults in the united states the importance of money versus people, Journal of Human Resources vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 884-918. Gbadamosi, G & Joubert, P 2005, Money ethic, moral conduct and work related attitudes: Field study from the public sector in Swaziland, Journal of Management Development vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 754-763. Kohn, A 1998, Challenging behaviorist dogma: myths about money and motivation, Compensation and Benefits Review vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 27-37. McKinnon, R I 1973, Money and capital in economic development, Brookings Institution Press, New York. Mitchell, T R & Mickel, A E 1999, The meaning of money: an individual-difference perspective, Academy of Management Review vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 568-578. Wilhelm, M S, Varcoe, K, & Fridrich, A H 1993, Financial satisfaction and assessment of financial progress: importance of money attitudes, Financial Counseling and Planning vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 181-198. Read More