{"id":93375,"date":"2026-06-30T07:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=93375"},"modified":"2026-06-30T07:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:21:12","slug":"money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/06\/30\/money\/","title":{"rendered":"Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the fourth in a series of essays on the politics of care<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0economics of hope<\/a>. The others are listed at the end of this essay.<\/em><\/p>\n

As with the other essays, I acknowledge the input of my wife, Jacqueline, into this essay.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Most people think they understand money.<\/p>\n

After all, they use it every day.<\/p>\n

But ask a simple question.<\/p>\n

What is money?<\/p>\n

The answers usually sound like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pays for things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we earn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those describe what money does.<\/p>\n

They do not explain what it is.<\/p>\n

So start somewhere familiar.<\/p>\n

Imagine you go to a supermarket.<\/p>\n

Your trolley is full.<\/p>\n

You reach the checkout.<\/p>\n

The cashier scans your shopping.<\/p>\n

You tap your bank card.<\/p>\n

A few seconds later you walk out with your groceries.<\/p>\n

Now ask yourself this.<\/p>\n

What actually moved?<\/p>\n

The food moved.<\/p>\n

You moved.<\/p>\n

But did any money move?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

No coins travelled.<\/p>\n

No banknotes changed hands.<\/p>\n

Nothing was physically transferred from your bank to the supermarket.<\/p>\n

Instead, one number on one computer became smaller.<\/p>\n

Another number on another computer became larger.<\/p>\n

That was all.<\/p>\n

Money was not transported.<\/p>\n

The records changed.<\/p>\n

Now think about your bank statement.<\/p>\n

It is simply a list of numbers.<\/p>\n

When your salary arrives, a number increases.<\/p>\n

When you pay your rent, a number decreases.<\/p>\n

When your electricity bill is paid, another number changes somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Your bank is not moving piles of money around.<\/p>\n

It is updating records.<\/p>\n

That should make us stop and think.<\/p>\n

If money is mostly numbers in accounts, perhaps money is not really a thing at all.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is information.<\/p>\n

That idea explains a great deal.<\/p>\n

Imagine your bank accidentally adds \u00a31,000 to your account.<\/p>\n

You feel richer.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Not because a lorry has delivered anything.<\/p>\n

Not because the economy has produced more goods.<\/p>\n

You feel richer because the bank\u2019s records now say you have a larger claim on what the economy produces.<\/p>\n

Money is a record of claims.<\/p>\n

It tells us who is entitled to command goods and services.<\/p>\n

That is why banks spend so much time keeping accurate accounts.<\/p>\n

The accounting is the money.<\/p>\n

This also explains governments.<\/p>\n

When the UK government spends, it does not open a vault and wheel out sacks of pounds.<\/p>\n

It instructs the Bank of England to alter accounts.<\/p>\n

Commercial banks then alter their customers\u2019 accounts.<\/p>\n

The money is created by changing the records.<\/p>\n

Tax works in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

It reduces the balances recorded in private bank accounts.<\/p>\n

Again, what changes are the records.<\/p>\n

The important question, though, is this.<\/p>\n

What do those records allow us to do?<\/p>\n

They allow us to organise the real economy.<\/p>\n

People grow food.<\/p>\n

Others teach children.<\/p>\n

Others build houses.<\/p>\n

Others care for patients.<\/p>\n

Others design software.<\/p>\n

Money keeps track of who has contributed and who can claim part of what everyone together has produced.<\/p>\n

That is why money matters.<\/p>\n

But it is also why money is not the economy.<\/p>\n

If every bank computer in Britain showed that everyone had twice as much money tomorrow morning, we would not suddenly have twice as many houses.<\/p>\n

Or twice as many nurses.<\/p>\n

Or twice as much electricity.<\/p>\n

The numbers would change.<\/p>\n

Reality would not.<\/p>\n

The real economy consists of people, knowledge, skills, energy, technology and nature.<\/p>\n

Money is the accounting system that helps us organise them.<\/p>\n

Once you see that, many political arguments look different.<\/p>\n

The real question is rarely whether we have enough money.<\/p>\n

The real question is whether we have the people, the resources and the willingness to do what needs to be done.<\/p>\n

Money is how we record those choices.<\/p>\n

It is not what ultimately limits them.<\/p>\n

\n

Other essays in this series<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Potential<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Becoming<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Energy, exergy, people, the economy and money<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is the fourth in a series of essays on the politics of care\u00a0and\u00a0economics of hope. The others are listed at the end of this
     Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,239,174,224,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-economics-of-hope","category-modern-monetary-theory","category-neoliberalism","category-politics-of-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93375"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93432,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93375\/revisions\/93432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}