Ex 1. Here’s an abstract from an Internet discussion on the above issue. Read the statements and express your agreement or disagreement with them

Mohammad A.

Technology Project Consultant

Success and money

Success is a very important word in life since we are all determined to achieve it. The meaning of success is different for everyone; it varies from person to person, what one is searching for in life. For example, for some people, doing work they get pleasure from is more important than to earn ‘more money’. Success requires passion, determination and wisdom to achieve desired results.

By and large in the social and organizational context, success is measured or associated with wealth/money, for example - the more you earn, the more successful you will be considered. Generally, the motivational idea behind this is, the better you perform/achieve, the more you get (monetary benefits). The premise for this concept might be that everyone is working day in and day out to achieve certain objectives and once they are attained, the best reward for their efforts/contributions is normally considered monetary benefits.

Success in life means money - kindly share your opinions, for or against. Furthermore, what is the meaning of success in your life and how do you evaluate it?

Lisa A. N.

Telephone operator

I see success differently, as fulfilling my potential and using the gifts I enjoy using. The amount of money doesn't figure into it as long as I can support myself.

John P.

Chief Information Officer at CardioMed

There was a study performed a little while ago to explore the correlation between income and happiness. After achieving an annual income of approximately $80,000 it was discovered that happiness with one's life did not increase. A multi-millionaire was just as happy with the things he had as someone making $100,000 a year.

The problem is that society has defined success as wealth. I think that if you sit down and discuss individual definitions of success, the results will overwhelmingly point to freedom. The ability to travel, take large spans of time off, not to worry about medical expenses, tuition, or bills. It is entirely counter-intuitive to the reality of having millions of dollars in the bank. Truth is, when you achieve that kind of monetary success, you have to spend a great deal of time maintaining it. You trade quality of life for vast sums of money.

I suppose it would be nice to have a Lamborghini, but I'd like the option to drive it to somewhere besides the office...

Zeeshan T.

Technical Support Engineer

Hmm, a nice discussion. What I see around is that people always run for money, not success, success comes when they are paid more money. Because in real life money is important, not success.

Farhana Z.

Consultant at Excelerate

really a good discussion. it also depends on a person.

SUCCESS IN LIFE MEANS SIMPLE YOUR SATISFACTION with ENTIRE LIFE, either you have money or not

Jim B.

Entrepreneur Performance Expert

Success to me is personal freedom to live the life I want. If that is not happening I need to re-evaluate my priorities. The first step to success is deciding what freedom means to you. Without that we are in a race with no finish line.

Mustafa K.

Founder and CEO at Boxer Watches

Success in life does NOT mean money to me. Because money without time has no value.

Time is a non-renewable resource. You can't gain more time, but you can always gain back more money.

Therefore success in my life is when I have the time and opportunities to pursue things which make me excited. Of course money is needed and can help greatly, but it certainly isn't the main goal.

Ex 2. What do you consider true success in life? How would things look if you were really successful? That is what this poll about.

What is true success to you personally? Which of the definitions given below appeals to you more? Why? Give your grounds and discuss your views with the groupmates. If necessary, add your own definition of success to the list.

- True success means making lots of money and accumulating vast amounts of wealth.

- True success is simply being happy with everything that you do and what happens to you.

- True success means attaining deep enlightenment and realizing enlightenment.

- True success means finding your soul mate and raising a wonderful family.

- True success is different for each of us and cannot be defined.

- There is no such thing as true success, it is just a fantasy that some people have.

Vote. See, which of the statements appears to be most popular.

Ex 3. Role-play:

Discuss the roles of money and success in people’s life in a TV show. There may be different people invited to participate in this discussion – millionaires, students, teachers, celebrities, psychologists etc.

Ex 4. Write an essay “My idea of success in life”.

Unit VI

Part 1

Forms of Money

obligation, Gold Standard, fiat money, legal tender, paper money, intangible money, electronic money

Text

Over time, the nature of goods serving as money has changed. It is widely agreed that what at times became the prime function of these goods was often not the same as their original purpose. It seems that goods were chosen as money because they could be stored conveniently and easily, had a high value but a comparably low weight, and were easily portable and durable. These widely desired goods were easy to exchange and therefore came to be accepted as money. So the evolution of money depends on a number of factors, such as the relative importance of trade and the state of development of the economy.

Commodity money

A variety of items have served as commodity money, including the wampum (beads made from shells) of the American Indians, cowries (brightly colored shells) in India, whales’ teeth in Fiji, tobacco in the early colonies in North America, large stone discs on the Pacific Island of Yap and cigarettes and liquor in post-World War II Germany.

Metallic money

The introduction of metallic money was a way by which ancient societies tried to overcome the problems associated with using decaying commodities as money. It is not known exactly when and where metallic money was used for the first time. What is known, however, is that metallic money was in use in around 2000 B. C. in Asia, although in those times its weight does not seem to have been standardized nor its value certified by the rulers. Chunks or bars of gold and silver were used as commodity money since they were easy to transport, did not decay and were more or less easily divisible. Moreover, it was possible to melt them in order to produce jewelry.

Metallic coins

Europeans were among the first to develop standardized and certified metallic coins. The Greeks introduced silver coins around 700 B. C.; Aegina (595 B. C.), Athens (575 B. C.), and Corinth (570 B. C.) were the first Greek city-states to mint their own coins. The silver content of the Athenian drachma, famous for depicting the legendary owl, remained stable for nearly 400 years. Greek coins were therefore widely used (their use was further spread by Alexander the Great), and have been found by archaeologists in a geographical area ranging from Spain to modern India. The Romans, who had previously used cumbersome bronze bars called assignatum as money, adopted the Greek innovation of using official coins and were the first to introduce a bi-metal scheme using both the silver denarius and the gold aureus. Under the Emperor Nero in the first century A. D., the precious metal content of the coins started to diminish as the imperial mints increasingly substituted gold and silver for alloy in order to finance the Empire’s gigantic deficit. With the intrinsic value of the coins declining, the prices of goods and services began to rise. This was followed by a general rise in prices that may have contributed to the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. The more stable Eastern Roman solidus, introduced by Constantine the Great in the fourth century A. D., was maintained at its original weight and precious metal content until the middle of the 11th century, thus gaining a reputation that made it the most important coinage for international trade for over five centuries. Byzantine Greek coins were used as international money and were found by archaeologists as far away as Altai in Mongolia.

In the mid-11th century, however, the Byzantine monetary economy collapsed and was replaced by a new system which lasted throughout the 12th century, until the Crusader conquest of Constantinople in 1204 eventually ended the history of Greco-Roman coinage. The Greeks and Romans had spread the custom of using coins and the technical knowledge of how to strike them over a vast geographical area. For most of the Middle Ages locally minted gold and silver coins were the dominant means of payment, although copper coins were increasingly being used. In 793 A. D. Charlemagne reformed and standardized the Frankish monetary system, introducing a monetary standard according to which one Frankish silver pound (408g) equaled 20 shillings or 240 pence – this standard remained valid in the United Kingdom and Ireland until 1971. After the fall of Constantinople, the Italian merchant city-states of Genoa and Florence introduced gold coinage in 1252 with the genoin of Genoa and the fiorina (or florin) of Florence. In the 15th century their place was taken by the ducato of Venice.

History

Paper money

The Chinese began using paper money around 800 A. D. under Emperor HienTsung and continued to do so for several hundred years. This paper money had no commodity value and was money only by imperial decree, or so-called fiat money (i.e. money without intrinsic value). Paper money was most widespread in China around 1000 A. D., but it was abandoned around 1500 when Chinese society went into decline following the Mongol Conquest.

Obligations

It was, however, difficult to conduct long-distance trade as long as value could only be stored in the form of commodities and coins. The Italian city states were therefore the first to introduce certificates of indebtedness (“obligations” or “bills of exchange”) as a means of payment. To reduce the risk of being robbed on their journeys, merchants took these obligations with them. Debtor and lender were mentioned in the certificates, a payment date was fixed, and the amount of gold or silver noted. Soon, merchant bankers began to trade these obligations. The first evidence of such a contract dates back to 1156.

Obligations continued to be used mostly by Italian merchants, and the bi-metal scheme remained dominant until the Thirty Years’ War. Due to the economic turmoil caused by the war, rulers such as the Swedish kings started to prefer paper money. This was subsequently introduced by the Bank of England in 1694 and the Bank in France in 1716. The advent of paper fiat money in Europe marked the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of money.

The responsibility for establishing and regulating the system of fiat money in a country remained with the governments, but other public or private institutions such as central banks and the financial system played an increasingly crucial role in the success of the national currency.

Gold Standard

Since the adoption of fiat money approximately two centuries ago, the monetary system has undergone great change. Paper money was – and still is – legal tender only by an act of the competent authority. It was issued in fixed units of national currency and had a clearly defined nominal value. For a long time, the nation states held gold reserves in their central banks to ensure the credibility of their currency – a system known as the Gold Standard. Currencies in the form of coins and fiduciary paper notes were convertible into gold at a fixed parity. The United Kingdom was effectively the first country to set up a gold standard in 1816, the exchange rate of pounds into gold having been determined in 1717 at 3.811 pounds sterling per ounce by Sir Isaac Newton himself. With the start of World War I, many countries began printing more and more money in order to finance the cost of the war. In Germany, for instance, the number of banknotes issued by the Reichsbank grew from 2,593 million in 1913 to a total of 92,844,720 billion banknotes in circulation on 18 November 1923. This ultimately led to hyperinflation. With more money circulating , most countries suspended the convertibility of their currencies into gold, as its increased quantity was no longer balanced by the national gold reserves. The Chinese began using paper money around 800 A. D. and continued to do so for several hundred years.

These days, various forms of intangible money have emerged, among them so-called “electronic money”.