Why is it that money doesn't have the same value all over the world?
535520
Why does this question keep coming up?\n\nCurrencies have different values because economies have different sizes. The U.S. economy is millions of times the size of that say of Namibia. So the U.S. dollar, backed by prosperity of an industrialized super power has much more value then the currency of a small, impoverished nation with few resources, no industry and little if any fiscal policy.\n\nThe actual value of each currency against others is set my market forces. Supply and demand. Who wants to buy more of what. But the actual buying power of a currency has to do with its stability, the financial strength of the nation that issues it and its worldwide demand.
132609
Why is there a thing like money?  What would you do instead to distribute goods and services?  A long time ago, people used to use barter a lot: trade one good or service for another.  But it is impractical to carry around what you produce in order to trade it with what they produce.  And what if A wants what B has, but B wants what C has, and does not need what A has?  So money came into existence to represent wealth, as a medium of exchange.  At first, it was made of precious metals that had a value relatively well known: an ounce of gold or silver had a pretty standard value in the community.  Now it is made out of paper, and no longer paper which can be exchanged for gold or silver.  We use it because we trust the next person will accept it, just like we did.\n\nActually, nowadays we more often use accounting records, created by computers, instead of the actual money.  So we are even deeper into symbolic wealth, rather than tangible wealth, like gold or silver or a barrel of pickles.
399743
Money makes the world go round, unfortunately greed comes with that.  We are the greediest country in the world.  It sucks, because there is so much to marvel at when you look at this country but also so much to mock.
358905
The value of the dollar is directly related to the amount of debt our government carries. As an example:\nin 1999 when we were paying down our debt $1US=.618 British pound\ntoday, with our massive debt $1US=0.5483 British pound\n\nThe higher our national debt goes, the less our money, backed by the US government, is worth to the world.
594041
Yes of course, but how to change it is the Worth million $ question. The reason that I couldn't change my life is not clear to me. During the recession of  1927-30, a mad patient was discharged form a mental Hospital in Germany, when he was going back to his home after quite some time the world was facing this economic recession crises,when the conductor in the bus asked him for a ticket, he didn't have any cash to pay, then he took out some gold piece from his luggage and asked the conductor to to have his ticket charges, every one in the bus got surprised and he was taken to a police station. At police station, his gold was changed into cash by a state owned bank and probably his cash was in a truck and he was escorted by police vehicle. When he was going back to his home. Many people were asking him how do you feel? His answer was very simple "there are two things either I am still mad or the world has become mad". The same I feel, as I couldn't change my life, why?
468237
The value of precious metals, as well as gems, are based on their rarity. It may seem like there is a lot of gold all around us, but the amount of gold available on the earth is finite. Other metals, like platinum or even rarer. Gold has always been precious because it does not tarnish or rust. \n  The world's economic system no longer relies on just precious metals. If it were, it would be a disaster. During WWII, dollars were issued not on what they were actually worth in gold, but what the were promised to be worth... and we know how governmental promises work. Then other governments issued their money based on what our money was worth... pretty soon all money was going to be worthless.  Now each country's economic system is based on all its assets, including industry and natural resources. That is why money values fluctuate so much every day.
298640
All currency is backed by gold or silver, if you produce more currency then you have gold to back it up with, you can collapse an economy by lowering the value of their currency to the point where they are bankrupt.Suppose you have 20 pounds of gold and you issue enough currency to cover what the gold is worth, now someone comes along and makes more currency to distribute, if everyone were to cash in ( which isn't physically possible, but in theory it can happen) you would have no way of giving everyone the gold for their currency. Now multiply this by 1000's and 1000's and you'll see how it can cripple a countrys economy.
1065786
Economically it is impossible right now. We work with a world market right now, and right now all countries and cultures are different. India and China's economy is just blossming and their currencey is unstable. America is racking up a deficeit and our currency is shrinking. Japan is growing and so is their currency. Each countries currency goes up and down depending on the economical climate, so it would be impossible (and unfavorable) to use a single currency. Plus, with modern technolology exchange is so quick and simple their is no reason to adpot a universal currency.
448054
Because the size and power of every economy is different, there were still exchange rates when the Euro took over, but it was fixed at a certain point for every country and then diluted into the new currency. It really wouldn't be fair to dilute the buying power of the U.S. dollar or Japanese Yen by pegging its value to that of the Mexican Peso.
407973
Sudan, Mexico? i don't know, but it's probably not pretty. Actually check the currency exchange and see where the dollor is worth most at.
1077470
From Wikipedia (there is much more at the link I provided):\n\n"A market based exchange rate will change whenever the values of either of the two component currencies change. A currency will tend to become more valuable whenever demand for it is greater than the available supply. It will become less valuable whenever demand is less than available supply (this does not mean people no longer want money, it just means they prefer holding their wealth in some other form, possibly another currency)."\n\n"Increased demand for a currency is due to either an increased transaction demand for money, or an increased speculative demand for money."\n\n"A currency will tend to lose value, relative to other currencies, if the country's level of inflation is relatively higher, if the country's level of output is expected to decline, or if a country is troubled by political uncertainty."
67117
The amount of money is constantly fluctuating.\n\nEach country regulates its own currency.  If you print too much, the value of your currency will decrease.  The value of the money is based on the country's productivity.  The USA has the biggest GNP at $11.75 trillion.  A country's currency will go up or down in value based on the actions in that country.  If it prints more money, its value will drop in comparison to other countries that are not printing out more money.
640155
It's a little of both.\nThe cost of living has risen constantly over time. This is evidenced by the median prices of all goods. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't live on the $2.74/hr which my first job paid me!\nBut our dollar value has dropped, too.\nThere was a time when the U.S.Dollar was the highest standard in currency. However, with Europe uniting the Euro is now much stronger than the dollar. As other nations improve their standards of living, the price of importing their goods also goes up.\nAnd so, the circle continues.
387473
because when you increase the supply of the currency then you could cause a surplus in relation to the demand.  That could cause the value of the currency to drop.\n\nThink of it in terms of diamonds...if there were enough diamonds to go around so everyone would have ten of them, why would anyone pay so much for one?
316746
money makes the world go 'round.
365876
Yes, though not any one other currency in particular.  Currency prices are the exchange rate for that currency compared to another.  Typically, though, when a currency gets stronger, it becomes more expensive compared to all other currencies.  The Dollar Index is based on a basket of currencies, so if one of those currencies in the basket rises, typically, all the others will follow in the same direction.  It is possible that some event will cause one currency to rise (Let's say if British Unemployment were lower than expected), and another to fall (Let's say riots in Europe), that the Dollar will remain unchanged, although the Euro will be cheaper, but the British Pound will be more expensive.  There are many reasons why the currencies fluctuate, but in the end it is basically an indicator of the the strength of one currency against another.
425387
Historically, countries have overprinted their currency, leading to devaluation, and often, dire economic crises such as depression.  A careful balance must be struck to ensure that the money in circulation does not adversely impact the economy.