Money

Now we know that humankind find money useful

when they want to trade things between themselves,

a unit of value that they can agree on.

And it was so useful

that people soon stopped trying to get what they wanted by swapping things

and used money all the time for selling and buying.

But it was not always trading in things that had value.

People would work for money,

doing jobs that other people couldn't do

or didn't want to do.

Someone might chop wood, or cut hair,

or pick crops at harvest time.

People learned to think of the worth of what they had in terms of money,

budgeting to make it last during times that they would not be earning,

like those who might help a farmer pick the crops at harvest time

which only lasts for a short while of the year.

Jobs change with the seasons

and people have times when they are richer or poorer.

Even kids that only have pocket money,

usually given to them for doing very little

except being someone's kids,

know there is only so much you can buy

with a certain amount of money,

and they have to decide what they think is

the most important thing to spend their money on,

what they want most

and what they are prepared to do without for a while

until they can get more money.

So when people are trying to work out what they want to spend their money on

it is good to be able to see what something costs

compared to something else,

and shopkeepers put labels on their things

with the prices they want to charge.

But sometimes they will lower the price of a thing

to try to sell more,

to make something seem cheaper than its real value.

They will have sales at a discount.

But labels can be very confusing,

and lots of shopkeepers will use that fact

to take advantage of those who don't know how to do the maths.

What if a label says 40% off?

First of all it is important to ask 40% off what?

Was it really worth what they say it should be

and would it be worth what it costs now

if they weren't saying it is a bargain?

And supermarkets were made to put labels on their goods

to make it easy to compare the actual costs of similar things,

but they still manage to keep things confusing

by using labels with offers like 3 for 2,

or buy one and get one half price.

They make it so that you need good maths

to be able to work out exactly what you are paying

for what you are getting.

Only with God can you be sure

that you will get your exact worth.