Money

Day 14 Theme: Money (Student led by Kolby and I)

Kolby and I planned a our day based on the theme of money. We wanted to have discussion about how money fits in with all the other days. Money isn't the meaning of life, that was very clear. But it plays into all the other themes we've explored so far. We assign value to money the same way we assign value to other things, like what we do, how we dress, labels and titles we give people. Money impacts us even if we don't want it to, even if we don't realize it. When thinking about the different ways we could spend the day we decided to explore an excess of money and a lack of money. The rich and the poor. We also looked at how to live in ways where money doesn't control us, even though we need it to survive. For our assignments to the class we had them try an online activity where you try and survive a month with a limited amount of funds. (It's at playspent.org if you want to check it out.) We also had them watch a video of a speech by Alan Watts about what if money was no object? What do you actually want in life when you ignore money? What do I desire? (Video Link)

For what we wanted to do during the day we planned a tour of Wall Street. When we visited wall street to plan the tour we just hit the traffic of a lot of people in suits carrying briefcases hurrying out of offices, so it was really cool to see that working dynamic of it. But when we visited with the class on Saturday it was a much different vibe, and was mostly filled with tourists. Kolby and I learned a lot of history as we planned our tour. We split up researching different buildings and organizations. I looked at The New York Stock Exchange, The trump building, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and Frances Tavern. And Kolby looked at the Charging Bull, Trinity Church, Federal Hall National Memorial and the George Washington statue, and Stone Street.

(If you don't want any history or random facts then skip this section:) I looked at things like the financial district as a whole, the NYSE, "The Big Board" vs NASDAQ. The history of The Wall Street Journal started as "Customer's Afternoon Letter". The Charging Bull represents a lot of things, but one I thought was really cool was that a bull market condition is when the average is rising, (where as a bear market condition is when the average drops). In The New York Stock Exchange there's 19.3 trillion dollars of invested companies, as of June 2016. On average $169 billion is traded daily as of 2013. In trinity church we spent time looking at the graves of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza. It's also the church in National Treasure, which I love. The New York Stock Exchange was founded in the late 18th century known as the buttonwood agreement. It was signed on May 17, 1792 at 68 Wall St by 28 brokers. The Dow Jones Average is a benchmark for the stock exchange, in 1984 Charles H. Dow began tracking stocks (eleven at first), which has led to the average we have today. Today the stock exchange is open from 9:30 to 4:00 Monday through Friday. A bell is rang at the start of the day, which used to be a gavel. I also looked at Trump's business since he just became president. Warren Buffet, one of the big names on Wall Street, backed Trump, and most other big money dealers did as well. Having someone in power who's going to give tax breaks to big corporations, because they own a big corporation, and that's how you get businesses to stop leaving the U.S. is really good for Wall Street. And the stocks surged more than usual when Trump came into office. Even Bernie said he thinks Trump will sell out the middle class.

I looked at the Trump Building (one of many) located at 40th Wall St. It's a 71 story story skyscraper, originally it was the bank of Manhattan trust building. It was the tallest building when completed may 1930, but Chrysler added steel spire surpassing 40th wall (77 stories approximately) in April. The Manhattan trust building was bought in 1995 by Trump. It's a commercial space. He paid about $10 million (though he says he only paid $1 million, and it's worth $400 mill, then two years later he said it's worth $600 mill so it sounds like he just makes these numbers up on a whim.) Bloomberg claims it's his most valuable property. Since trump took over there have been criminal charges against at least 29 people connected to 12 alleged scams tied to the building. 9 other firms faced claims but weren't charged with anything. Sketchy stuff. Aaron burr once had an office there. On trump organization website it says "Donald J. Trump is the very definition of the American success story" which I thought was really interesting because after just having a day all about success, it's clear there are so many ways to define that. And having him as the image for the "american success story" makes me want to have nothing to do with that dream.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Robert Moses rebuilt the Jeanette Park in mid 1900s. Changed to memorial in 1985 to honor 1741 citizens of NYC who died in the Vietnam war. (250000 men and women served between 1964 and 1975) after 9/11 it went a 7 million dollar restoration. (This was interesting to me because we put so much money into commemorating the past) 10th anniversary of war in may 1985 they dedicated it, the next day there was 30,000 or more veterans walking the Brooklyn Bridge, people applauded and waved and gave them a belated thanks. It was an emotional celebration.

Fraunces Tavern opened in 1762 by Samuel Fraunces. 1783 nine days after last British soldiers left US soil, Washington had farewell to soldiers at the tavern. There was a meeting at 54 Pearl St with the tavern owner, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron burr, a week before duel.

Here's some of the quotes about money that Kolby and I discussed before our day,

"Money is life"

"Money is a good servant but a bad master"

"Money is as innocent as the gun"

Warren Buffet, "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2, never forget rule number one".

1 Timothy 6:3-10 and 17-19

"Time = Money"

"Money is a drug"

"Money is never enough"

"Money is evil"

Money vs. Love

And here are some questions we talked about and brought up with the class:

How do we live practically between keeping, spending, and giving?

How do we decide how to spend our money?

What would a world without money look like?

Why would God call someone to have an occupation with little financial gain?

Why is money such a cause of inequality?

Can you ever be truly happy with money?

After touring Wall Street and visiting the museum of finance we wanted to find something to do that involved not having money. New York is filled with people asking for money. People without homes, without money, without meals.

We also asked the class to write a letter to someone financially in need, and we created care packages with some things that might be helpful to people in need (socks, granola bars, gift cards to subway, and water). It was supposed to be in groups of three, but somehow Carys and I each ended up with our own and we walked around to give them away together. I was a little disappointed that not everyone actually got to give away their own care package, only because it was so impactful when we did it. I gave mine to a man who I think was named Frankie. He was just standing asking for a couple of dollars for dinner. We walked by him and then I paused before continuing. I think Carys knew that he was the one. She's just wise like that. He seemed a little crazy, like not someone to stop and talk to, which is why we had just kept going. But Carys knew I wanted to go up to him so she pushed me to do it. As soon as I started talking to him it was clear he wasn't crazy. He's a normal guy. He just needs a little for food. He explained how hard it is. How he never thought that he would be in this situation. That you never think it will happen to you. That you'll always have enough, until you don't. He just started crying. Just balling. From a cold lifeless expression, someone that's easy to walk by, to a lot of pain. He told us how hard it is. That it's like people are angry at you. People are mad at your misfortunate. They look at you like you're dirt. Like you're in the way. They don't want to be inconvenienced to even see you. I can't even imagine what it's like to go through that every day. He said it's nice to just be treated like a human. When he saw what was int he care package, and the gift card, he was overjoyed. He said it would help him get by for a long time. He could go get a hot cup of coffee, or a sandwich. It was an honor to meet Frankie. He taught me more about love and generosity than any other part of the trip. Kolby was more in charge of the care package part of the day, how we were going to deal with looking at having not enough money, and I was more in charge of the having too much money and looking at Wall Street. At first when she told me the idea to talk to people on the streets I thought that it would be good, but not for me. It's not my thing to talk to strangers. It's not my thing to give away anything. But after doing that, I just can't believe I thought of it in that light. It's absolutely valuable to give away things. It's incredible to help people. It's worth a lot more than keeping things for yourself. I think I gave away my own cash maybe once on the trip. I always say no. And I don't know why. Me keeping a few extra dollars is worth nothing in comparison for what it can do for someone who has no money for dinner. What Frankie said will always stick with me. That could be me one day. You never think it's going to happen to you. I can care for people like they're actual people , people who I can help in some small way.