Wednesday, December 12, 2012

If I Had A Million Swiss Francs

Question of the day: why is there so much greed in the United States when our money is so ugly? This, my friends, is what I have been thinking about for approximately the past three minutes. I mean here's the thing, I can understand being greedy in Switzerland. Their money is gorgeous and there is fine chocolate everywhere you look on which to spend that beautiful money. Last semester I traveled to Geneva, Switzerland for a weekend while I was studying abroad in Spain. When my friends and I got the the Geneva airport we found an ATM so that we could get some cash. I remember receiving my crisp 100 franc bill and wondering how poor of a choice it would be to just keep the bill instead of spending it on food for the next few days because IT WAS SO COOL LOOKING. If you've never seen Swiss Francs, here is a picture:


Each bill is different vibrant color causing you to feel happiness from just looking at them! This is what I mean when I say that I can understand being greedy in Switzerland. I can understand loving money, and wanting to keep any that you get for yourself, and possibly framing each bill. Okay, I'm exaggerating now, but you get my point. On the other hand, here is a $100 dollar bill:


It is an ugly sort of brownish-grayish-greenish color, and Benjamin Franklin isn't even smiling, so why should you. Here's the thing: I don't think that greed is a good attribute for anyone to have, even the Swiss. But we live in the United States of America. We live in a country that was founded on justice for all, and that has ugly dollar bills and chocolate that is made of like 1% cocoa. Greed doesn't even make sense in our country, yet people all over the world stereotype us based on it. Sad, isn't it?

However, while our dollar bills may be ugly, they aren't useless. Just a couple of days ago I went to a Christmas party where we wrapped gifts for nineteen single mothers and their children; gifts that we bought using the $1800 that we had raised. Penny for my thoughts: It's pretty cool that eighteen brownish-grayish-greenish pieces of paper featuring a pursed-lipped Ben Franklin can be used to help some moms give their kids the great Christmas they deserve.

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