"Money can be anything - Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so, the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete sets his whole heart on money."
Arthur Schopenauer
For something we all use so much of, and think about as much as we do, money is extraordinarily elusive. Nobody quite agrees what it is or even sometimes what it's for.
At the end of the spectrum, it can be shells from the beach which are used as money in parts of Polynesia. It can be 12-foot round blocks of stone, used as money in the Caroline Islands - unlikely to be stolen out of your handbag but less than useful as small change. Or, if you're in Wall Street, money can be screeds and screeds of digital information, unrelated to any product in the real world.
It isn't that one is real and the other isn't. Both are profoundly real and relate to the different functions that money plays. According to the economists there are three of these: as a store of value (like the stones), as a standard of value (which everyone can understand) and as a medium of exchange (like the shells - they need have no value in themselves, but help you exchange at an exact price).
