In Dreaming of Money in Ho Chi Min
City, Truitt elaborates on the many ways in which the economy is affected
by politics, and how strongly the changes in government policy in Vietnam have
affected the lives of everyday people. One of the overall themes of these
chapters seems to be how much national ideologies and political strategies have
an impact on people’s economic decisions. Another theme is the level of privacy
that people have based on their economic status and value, which are ultimately
defined by the government. Truitt also discusses the many ways in which money
is perceived by people based on its appearance and its source.
My overall impression was that it is important to understand how money,
and what a society defines as currency, cannot be completely standardized. This
is because many societies tend to use multiple forms of currency, and the
presumed values of these different currencies are constantly changing. As
someone who has grown up in the U.S., a country with a relatively stable
currency, it is interesting to learn how countries that are going through
periods of political and economic instability, are finding ways to cope with drastic
fluctuations in prices and inflation. If for some reason the U.S. government
had to create a new currency system, how would its citizens, as well as the global
economy, react to such a drastic change?
Reference:
Allison J. Truitt. Dreaming of
Money in Ho Chi Minh City. Edition: 2013. Publisher: University of
Washington Press.
I actually sort of wondered how that would look within the United States as well! I'd like to go back and look at how the Euro was implemented, how long that took, and the other challenges of coming to a standard currency. It seems like such a huge undertaking to create, implement, and abolish a currency system that throughout Truitt's writing I was just amazed that it was happening. Also the way other Asian currencies and Mexican silver was incorporated into Vietnam's economic system was very interesting and incredible.
ReplyDeleteThese are really good comparisons and very pertinent to the current Euro crisis in Europe for instance. But also, more generally, it is true that looking at currency changes historically, as Triutt does with Vietnam, reveals how much currency is subject to political changes.
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