The University of Idaho Argonaut

Money has value. This may seem like an obvious statement, but the way some people think and talk about money implies that they haven’t quite grasped this basic concept. Having value reveals something about money. It tells us that money is a reflection of wealth. This makes sense to us as we can see that wealthier people and wealthier countries are those that have more money.

Since it is something that has value, however, money does not simply appear. Rather, it must be produced. When we talk about how much money a person makes, it is a rough reflection of how much wealth that person is actually producing. This is why we talk about making money rather than getting money. 

Money has value. This may seem like an obvious statement, but the way some people think and talk about money implies that they haven’t quite grasped this basic concept. Having value reveals something about money. It tells us that money is a reflection of wealth. This makes sense to us as we can see that wealthier people and wealthier countries are those that have more money.

Since it is something that has value, however, money does not simply appear. Rather, it must be produced. When we talk about how much money a person makes, it is a rough reflection of how much wealth that person is actually producing. This is why we talk about making money rather than getting money.

Because money is not something that appears by magic, it must come from somewhere. What this means is that anytime you ask someone for money — unless you are producing it yourself — there is less money somewhere else. If you ask your dad for $50 and he gives it to you, he now has $50 less to spend on his needs because you didn’t produce the money yourself. The same thing happens anytime a person or a group asks for funding. Since they are not producing the wealth, it must come from somewhere else. To put it another way, it must be taken from someone else.

If, for instance, a state decides that it needs an extra $10 million for education, then it must take that $10 million dollars away from somewhere else, such as social services, transportation, or the tax payer’s pockets. But what if the social services also need $10 million more, and the Department of Transportation needs $10 million more, and the tax payers need $10 million more?
Just because money is deserved or needed doesn’t mean that it can come. This bears repeating: just because a good cause “deserves” money doesn’t mean that it should get the money, because others “deserve” that money as well, and some of them may be the people who actually made the money. In order to merit funding, it is not enough to “deserve” it. You must deserve it more than anybody else.

The issue on campus where this theory applies is in increasing student fees. The SBOE permitted a smaller increase than was requested, and many seem to be up in arms about it. However, we have to remember that the money must come from somewhere. It would be different if the university were a business that were asking to stay open 8 percent longer so as to produce more, which would actually make more money. The university’s request to increase fees does not make the world any wealthier, so in order to get the money it has requested it must take the money from somebody else. Unlike most funding requests, in this case we can see clearly where we would be getting the money.

It would come from the pockets of the students and their parents.

If the university is going to be indignant about getting a smaller increase, then it must be very sure that it deserves this extra $1 million more than the students and parents who made it. That money might otherwise be spent on living expenses, or perhaps is will need to be taken out as student loans, in which case it will come out of student pockets down the road, perhaps when they are trying to find the money to buy a home.

Perhaps those who made the money deserve to have it more than those who want to take it from them. Now there’s a revolutionary thought.