I asked a question in one of my Facebook groups about how people bill and receive money from clients who live in a country different than theirs. The responses were wide and varied, leading me to apps and such that make the conversion simple. There were reminders to check with my accountant about what that does to my taxes and stuff like that.
But one person, who happens to be a Canadian, mentioned that everything she buys from the US, she must pay at USD. With a cute, frowning emoji, she invited me to check out the USD/CAD conversion rate. Now, I have known for a while that the conversion between the two countries meant that Canadians paid a seemingly higher amount. But today, when I looked, Google showed:
Something about seeing it just now gave me pause. And then my brain exploded, which could possibly be because I had just left a very powerful, expansive, co-creative conversation with a magical person that recently entered my world, so my brain was already stretched to capacity. But, as it was, suddenly all this information about money, the perception of money, and the relation of money to value started dumping into my brain.
I’m pretty sure it is because I tapped into the collective consciousness – or unconsciousness – of the human interaction with “money,” with all that those quotation marks mean around that word. But whatever it was, here is some of what came up for me during that Facebook interaction:
I am in the US and I’m well aware of the usd/cad conversion and that Canadians actually pay higher for my services because someone, somewhere, has decided that the currency of different countries has different value. So… energetically… does that increase the value of my work when I work with people in Canada? Like, for instance, if I were able to work with someone in Iran where 1 US Dollar equals 37,745.00 Iranian Rial, what in the world does THAT do to the value of my work? How about if my client is from Bahrain, where 1 US Dollar equals 0.38 Bahraini Dinar, does that exponentially decrease the value of my work?
The value of a US dollar is based on some sort of math someone has come up with in comparison to the value of gold. Someone (or many) somewhere is deciding the value of gold. Then someone (or many) somewhere is deciding how gold relates to every other country’s currency on the planet and they are deciding the currency conversion rate.
It seems all arbitrary to me.
While I know there are financial experts out there that will most likely tell me it is anything but arbitrary and it is all mathematically sound, to me it is absurd.
ALL money – regardless what it is called or its country of origin – is merely a symbol of energy. Energy is energy is energy is energy. It is equal no matter where it is. Humans decide how to wield that divinity, but it does not change the energy. Energy is unchanging in that, no matter what it is named or how it is used, it is still its original self; at the core it does not change. Even though energy moves, which connotes change, it is inherently, intrinsically the same energy.
If you look at the definition of value, you can see why the economy is so wonky. Definition according to merriam-webster.com:
Look at definition #4… something that is intrinsically valuable. That means it naturally belongs and is essential. It is something internal. It is something that external forces should not be able to label. And while I know I am talking about energy, I AM talking about energy. It is something that naturally belongs and is essential. And while money is a symbol of energy, it isn’t natural, but humans have made it essential. While energy is always moving, thereby always changing, the value of it does not change. So… humans have taken an energy, given it a label AND assigned it an ever changing value based on external information.
Therein lies THE problem. Perhaps?
I see, hear, read, work in, and heal energy. For a very long time, while I have been doing that, I have had difficulties with creating set prices for the services/goods I offer. I have also had difficulties with understanding how someone, somewhere can dictate to me that a dollar, which humans in this nation have declared to be essential for our existence, has a value set from an external standpoint for something that is so intrinsic.
And while I may be arguing semantics here, I’m wondering how… if the USD value changes every single day based on mathematical equations being done somewhere, what does that do to the value of humans who have enlisted this currency exchange as a means to make our lives work???
Aaaaaaand… this isn’t even taking into consideration the latest and greatest digital currencies: BitCoin and the like. What does that do to the assigned value of currency???!
I’m really not sure where I’m going with this. As I said, my mind has exploded. I’m in the information gathering stages and would LOVE to hear your point of view on this very interesting concept of the changing money value of services rendered and goods provided, based on what plot of land one lives on.
What say you?
