The Meaning of Money

I think that one of the most important things to take away from Tuesday's class was that money means different things to different people. We've talked a bit about how money is more of a symbol than anything else before in class, but we really went into it on Tuesday. In order for every financial decision to be made, the person or people deciding have an idea about what money means, and why it's appropriate to spend/not spend it in each situation. I thought it was also important to note that the meaning of money changes depending on each situation.

I think that the fact that the meaning of money can change quickly supports the idea of using the term socioeconomic diversity instead of status. Like we said in class, status implies something static, that would use the same set features across the board. But this just does not work when talking about money - in different places the same amount of money can get you a very different amount of things. This is important for families who are planning on moving or getting jobs in new places, because even if wages end up being higher, the cost of living in that place might also be higher.