163. Does your bank account balance say anything about your IQ?

I’ve lately been making the following joke: ‘The stupidest person in the cemetery is the one with the largest bank balance at death, and the smartest is the one showing a nice, round zero’. But this is not really a joke. It is in fact a pointed statement about money’s purpose and value. It is valuable only because it allows us to exchange goods and services, as we have chosen it as a simple and intuitive proxy for value. Thus, the value of our money is only exercised when we use it (for purchases, investment, tax payment or charity). When we don’t, and it sits on a bank account where we stare in awe at the many zeroes and grin at our name on the Forbes Richest List (other lists available, not that I recommend any), we get no value from it, bar for an empty, twisted satisfaction at most. Money must be deployed in the economy, creating wealth and improving standard of living for all. Anything else is stupid and indicative of a lack of understanding and, by extension, lack of intelligence

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