Have you ever thought about how the U.S. monetary system is backed up? If you haven’t don’t feel bad – I’ve never thought about it until I had to take this Business & Society course for my M.B.A.. If I’m being honest, most of the time I zone out when something political is mentioned. I just like to have faith that things happen for a reason, and that everything is a little pre-determined I guess, which brings me to my topic…

Are the U.S. banks backed by gold? How about by silver? Nope, it’s backed by faith. On our money it says

“In God We Trust.” 

This sentence is most commonly defended in the popular Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street (I probably watched this movie over ten times every Christmas season from age five to fifteen). If you were deprived during your childhood and were robbed of seeing this film, I’ll sum it up for you. The lead character is an adorable little girl who wants to prove that Santa is real, and she finally does so in court by saying if we put that sentence on our money, not knowing whether or not it’s true, but just having faith, we should also have faith in Santa and the spirit of Christmas. A little bit of a stretch I know, but when you’re watching the scene you really understand where the motive is coming from.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with; something I thought was so thought-provoking in class I had to share it while I was still sitting at my desk and in thought about it.

If the only thing keeping our economic circles alive, the only thing allowing money to circulate throughout our nation and be our number one shared medium is faith… why do we have so little faith in other aspects of our lives? We have faith in the government (there is a shriek of sarcasm in that question)? Why don’t we have faith in each other?