Friday 17 January 2014

SOCIAL DIMENSION OF MONEY

The function of money in daily life as a medium of exchange is simple. Some economist introduces the definition of money as the means of payment, exchange, and debt repayment. Since money is defined as quantifiable objects in several forms of usage, then the definitions about the money usage fall under two criteria: the definition in sociological situation on the use of money and the operation that is driven by the object of money itself in its sociological context.

The standard of understanding of money is to balance a number of different materials; be it types and embodied values, for a particular purpose. The existence of the standard use is very important for elasticity in redistribution of commodity values. Money plays role in an exchange form such as barter, storage, and the management of basic needs. The operation of money usage is attached to the number of ethics determinations for various objects to prevent the manipulation, for example, the price regulation for one commodity.

Money, Individual, and Commodity

The linkage between money, individual, and community in complex relationships can be traced in George Simmel’s analysis of money in sociological context. His analysis of the individual and community relationship has contributed to the development of the theories of money that is not merely seen from the monetary aspect. Simmel’s notion about the social significance of money is an innovation in social sciences.

If money is very influential on public sociality, it should also have cultural determination. The question is how does culture determine money? According to Simmel, modern life is a rational intellectual process that does not recognize the emotional aspects in the calculation. Cultural objects replace the culture of people, and creative thinking is the subject of the reification process based on the countable size.

Intellectual process reconciles the unskilled laborer with the money which transforms an object into an exchangeable commodity. This principle finds a very extreme consciousness of metropolitan society that rational human relationships are calculated in numbers. In this culture of monetary, money and intelligence can be exchanged, cultural and communities can be purchased. In short, through money everything can be bought and interconnected and makes the world fluctuates.
Money and Market

The relationship between money usage and market establishment is very complex and has a diverse history. For example, money and the calculation of money have been gradually penetrating our everyday life through the com-modification process. The sifting of community dependency to market rather than to domestic products has made them dependent on the labor market to meet their substantial needs.

In general, the moneterization is limited to two developments: depersonalization and development of calculation and quantification. Moneterization is closely related to the broad depersonalization process that is inspired by marketization.
Definition and Social Function of Money

The sociological perspective gives the understanding that money does not only function as the means of payment, but it also a meaningful social symbol which must be analyzed. According to Simmel and Burke, for money to have social meaning, it has to be transformed into the form of commodities. By owning a luxury car made by popular automotive industry, such as BMW and Mercedes, someone is actually communicating the value of the invested money into a luxury car, representing high class taste derived from certain amount of money. Thus, money must be analyzed as the means of communication.
Money Com-modification

In complex and complicated modern society, money has established markets that no longer trade goods but forming the market to trade the value of the money itself. Money is actualized not only as transaction exchange means, but also as traded commodity.

The difference of exchange value is what the traders transact in stock exchange. On the broad-display where money is treaded, such as stock exchange and money changers, the number of money will always show the dynamic and fluctuating graphics in the selling or buying. Wall street, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and Indonesian Stock Exchange are the market that were established from a shifting of the function of money, from a mere medium of exchange to a commodity that worth selling.