A brief overview of how money became the measure of everything

‘How money became the measure of everything?’- this has been the most common topics usually covered in an economics assignment. Many economics students find it difficult to write on this topic due to the complications involved. Here is a simplified version of this topic for you.

Initially, colonial America did not consider the well-being of human beings in terms of economics output or monetary earnings. Things started changing after the 18th century. Here’s the history of how money became the measure of everything.

During the mid-19th century, some of the industrialising nations like Germany, England and the United States began a new historical pattern. This was the time when American policymakers and businesspeople started measuring progress in dollars. They started tabulating social welfare on the basis of people’s capacity to generate income.

Until the 1850s, Americans measured the progress of their nation through moral statistics, including crime, education, pauperism, literacy, disease, etc. They placed human beings in the middle of their calculating vision during the 19th century.

This shift in their perspectives transformed the way Americans appraised their communities, businesses and investments. Initially, Americans considered factors like life expectancy rates and incarceration rates to measure the progress of their country. However, during the 19th century, everything boiled down to one thing and that was finance.

Around the middle of the 19th century, money-based economic indicator gained steady momentum. Therefore, it replaced moral statistics as the primary benchmarks of American prosperity. This shift was noticed in slavery, as well. Politicians such as John Calhoun used dubious information to make people believe that freedom is bad for black people.

The middle of the 19th century noticed an introduction of capitalism in the nation. The United States became a commercial society in the first few decades of the Republic. All the basic elements of life and society such as natural resources, works of art, technological discoveries, human beings, educational institutions and nations transformed into mere income-generating assets. These assets were measured according to their capacity to make money and bring quality returns.

Capitalisation became a crucial aspect of economics indicators. Upper-class Americans from the North and South began pouring their wealth into financial assets. They started believing that their entire society is nothing but a capitalised investment and the inhabitants could be used for maximising equations of monetised growth.

In the North, wealthy people started pouring money in urban real estate and companies that built railroads. Investors began putting money in bonds, loans, mortgages and other financial instruments. The national business class started caring less about moral statistics and more about the economic indicators.

This is a basic guide on how Americans started putting a price on everything. You can talk to your professors or get help with economics assignment from seniors if you need more details on this topic.

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