Money economy reduces persons to quantitative exchange value

Evidence

This intellectualistic quality which is thus recognized as a protection of the inner life against the domination of the metropolis, becomes ramified into numerous specific phenomena. The metropolis has always been the seat of money economy because the many-sidedness and concentration of commercial activity have given the medium of exchange an importance which it could not have acquired in the commercial aspects of rural life. But money economy and the domination of the intellect stand in the closest relationship to one another. … Money is concerned only with what is common to all, i.e., with the exchange value which reduces all quality and individuality to a purely quantitative level. All emotional relationships between persons rest on their individuality, whereas intellectual relationships deal with persons as with numbers, that is, as with elements which, in themselves, are indifferent, but which are of interest only insofar as they offer something objectively perceivable. It is in this very manner that the inhabitant of the metropolis reckons with his merchant, his customer, and with his servant, and frequently with the persons with whom he is thrown into obligatory association. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the essay’s Lofland framing of categorizing strangers without interpersonal trust. — connects to: Money expands economic circles and individualizes participants simultaneously — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 664; The cash economy correlates social expansion with individual differentiation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 663; The money economy makes social action approach pure objectivity — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 180 (+6 more)

Related

• Money expands economic circles and individualizes participants simultaneously (similarity 0.90)
• The money economy makes social action approach pure objectivity (similarity 0.88)
• The cash economy correlates social expansion with individual differentiation (similarity 0.87)
• Simmel saw money as both cause and expression of social acceleration. (similarity 0.82)
• Money is an impersonal standard that negates the content of goods (similarity 0.82)
• Money erases qualitative distinctions by reducing everything to quantity (similarity 0.82)
• Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object (similarity 0.81)
• Money makes desire instantly operative, dissolving the technical distance to objects (similarity 0.80)
• Intellectual mentality and money economy mutually reinforce each other (similarity 0.80)
• Prostitution reduces sex to species-generic content matched by money (similarity 0.79)
• Money functions as an equivalent-certainty that reduces the need for information (similarity 0.79)
• Money and intimacy cannot be disentangled from each other. (similarity 0.79)
• Money carries multiple frames of value beyond its economic function (similarity 0.78)
• Richer individuals need wider choice circles to satisfy their specific needs (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Prostitution reduces sex to species-generic content matched by money #exemplifies (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 360
• The money economy makes social action approach pure objectivity #corroborates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 180
• The cash economy correlates social expansion with individual differentiation #corroborates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 663
• Money expands economic circles and individualizes participants simultaneously #expands (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 664
• The development of credit cards reflects the diminishing materiality of money. #expands (0.55) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1497