Is money the root of all evil, or is it just a technology that makes our lives more efficient? Should some things not be for sale? This week on中国伊朗亚洲杯比赛直播, we’ll be discussing money: where it comes from, what it is now, and what it could become in the future.

You might think that something counts as money just in case it’s a valuable commodity that everybody is willing to barter for. Some forms of money, like gold coins, certainly fit this description. Others, like deeds that entitle the bearer to gold, are valuable because they represent valuable commodities. But it’s common for money to be backed not by a valuable commodity, but by fiat—that is, a declaration by a central bank which says that it’s valuable.

根据另一种被称为新图表主义的观点，是中央银行，加上一个征税的当局，使某样东西成为货币。This view entails that some things that appear to be money—like Bitcoin, orSomali shillings不要真正重要的。

就我个人而言，我认为金钱可以有多种形式，只要它是一种共享的媒介，使物物交换更有效。但即使不考虑我提出的关于金钱的形而上学的担忧，你也可能会被伦理问题所困扰。用货币价格来衡量事物的价值很容易:旧金山动物保护协会(SPCA)收养一只成年狗要175美元，而一台任天堂Switch要299美元。但是，说一只狗比一台任天堂Switch更值钱真的有意义吗?给狗标价可能会引起不恰当的比较。(Such comparisons can, however, be used to great rhetorical effect: see Neil Sinhababu’s ways of reckoning the cost of the Iraq War on his blogWar or Car?)

也许有些东西就是不应该买卖。我认为政府应该提供基本的商品和服务，比如道路、学校、公共交通和医疗保健，而不是允许这些东西在市场上交易。许多人认为出售婴儿或肾脏是不光彩的，即使他们同意收养或捐赠肾脏。

So perhaps, contrary to popular wisdom, money is something youcanhave too much of after a while. I’m looking forward to puzzling over these questions with our guest, Graham Hubbs, on this week’s upcoming show,Money Matters.