talk for a little while about some things that I'd like to talk to you about and then you can ask me questions or we can kind of talk together about your ideas about these things. And one of the things I wanted to talk today was about money and where money comes from. just your ideas about it, because money is a very important thing for people. I don't think very often grown-ups really take the trouble to explain to children all about money. I don't think you learn about it in school too much, but it's a real important thing to know about. So what I wanted to do is start out by talking to you about where money, where the idea of money got started, and then to talk about where your money comes from, because you all get money. Your parents have money, and you get some allowances. You all get allowances, right? Yeah. I'll bet you haven't really thought very carefully about where that money comes from, what you get to buy things. So, first of all, I wanted to tell you something you probably don't know.

[01:04]

Are you listening? Which is that for most of the time, when human beings have been on the earth, they didn't have money. They didn't need money. Because people mostly got food by hunting or by growing plants, just like we do at Green Gulch. And they pretty much had what they needed just by doing that. And if people wanted something that they didn't have, like for instance, suppose I was a hunter and I wanted a knife and I didn't have a knife. And somebody else in my village had a knife. I would go to that person and I'd say, I'd like a knife. And I'll give you this jacket you give me that night. That's called trading, right? You guys have all traded, right? So for a long time, mostly people could just get things that they needed by trading something and they just decide together what would be a fair trade.

[02:04]

For instance, Suppose I went to somebody and said, I'd like your knife, and I'm going to give you this little piece of dust for your knife. That would be a fair trade? That would be weird. No one would give you a knife for a little piece of dust, right? So people kind of worked out what things were worth. You know the word worth? Some things are worth lots. Some things aren't worth very much. So, for instance, if you're a hunter, do you think a knife is worth a lot or worth little? It's worth a lot because you can hunt things and kill things with a knife. A spear is worth a lot. And if you're cold, a nice warm jacket is worth a lot, right? So let's say that somebody else has a knife, but a real warm coat, and you're cold and you don't have a coat. You can trade your knife for that coat, and then you get what you want. Well, after a while, people realized... that it was easier to trade if they got something that they all could agree on to trade with.

[03:06]

And so some of the first money was things like shells and certain kinds of stones, shiny stones, jewels, and certain nettles. You know what nettles are? What's an example of a nettle? Gold. Gold. And iron. Copper. Silver, copper, bronze. What else? Nickel. Those are all metals, and all of those metals that you guys have mentioned have been used for money. And at first, people just used metals or shells or things like that for money just to lose. Sometimes the Indians would put them on a string, punch holes in the shells and use those to carry. You all remember Perry, the old man who died? Perry the Indian? Well, in his tribe, a long time ago, before white men came to California, their money was a certain special kind of shell that was very rare. It was called a dentotic shell. Dentalic shell. And people who were rich had long strings of shells that had holes punched in them.

[04:11]

And that's what they used to trade. So you could buy things with these shells. And in In white people's cultures, the things that they used for money were mostly medals, and eventually they would stamp things on the medals. Usually they'd stamp the picture of the king of the country on the medal. You probably have all seen pictures of old coins with a picture of an emperor or a king on the coin. Don't you all see pictures like that? No. Uh-huh. Yeah. It's just a piece of paper. Yeah, that's right. And now money is mostly paper. And that's really weird because paper isn't actually worth anything, right? You can't use paper. You can't. Yeah, that's true. Well, of course they have to make the money, paper money, sort of special or else anybody could make it, right?

[05:12]

So the money that we use now, it used to be that that paper would say on it... Anybody have something off the top of it that you didn't have? Well, maybe Gloria can go. Or any... Out of nickel? Out of nickel? Well, it used to be that money would say on it, paper money used to say on it that if you went to a bank, you could get metal money for that people. So, for a while, paper money was in place of metal money. And paper money used to say on it, this dollar, you can go to a bank and get a piece of silver, a silver dollar. How many of you have ever seen a silver dollar? I got five. I got two. I got two. It used to be that silver dollars... They were made out of real silver and they were real big and heavy and they had dollars worth of silver.

[06:18]

Oh, there's a good dollar bill. Let's just look at it. Let's see what it says. Kind of wrinkled up. This is just a piece of paper, but it is special kind of paper and it's printed on a special press. You know what a printing press is? It comes down and prints on the body? This is what they do. What they have is big books, and they're all filled up with these big books about world graphics. And they have lots of them. And they're just covered with money. Every page is just money. We got work to do. Oh, somebody found one of these. I have no coins. Here's some coins, and here's a... This says one dollar. It says the United States of America, one dollar. You turn it over, and it says one. One's up. You spend on fake money, it says. You can't write it. It's fake. And do you guys know what counterfeit money is? Who knows that word? I'm the older kid, so... Counterfeit money... is money that's fake, that somebody made themselves.

[07:22]

And people do try to make counterfeit money. They set up a cream press in their basement somewhere, and they try to imitate all these. See, money, you can pass this around. If you look closely, money has all these fine little lines on it. Those little lines are so that it'd be very hard for anybody else to make money. Just pass the ones back. Because all those fine little lines, those are very, very hard for anybody to do. And also, Amber's right. The paper is very special. Yeah, why don't you do that? It'd be fun to look at. You know whose picture's on the $1 bill? George Washington. Right. And who's on the $10 bill there? Ellen. Who was that? I don't know. Hamilton? Yeah. Hamilton. He's one of the people, one of the people called the Founding Fathers.

[08:22]

He's one of the people that started the United States. I wish I was green. That's why I found the $10 bill, because $10 is a lot of money. Yeah. At that time. At that time, yeah. Does anybody know where this money is made? Where this paper money is made? Does anybody know the name of the kind of place that makes money? No. It's called a mint. That's right. It's called a mint. A mint is a place where you make money. No, I don't want to joke. No, it's not time for jokes, Simon. Everybody's looking at the money. When you're all through looking, I'm going to say a few more things about money. Did you all see all the little lines? No. also on the pooling they used to have a they used to i come come with a little letter on it that tell what which mint it came from that's right but now there's only one minute i think it makes points so they don't leave those letters what like the one in philadelphia there used to be three one of them was in san francisco you ever been to the mint in san francisco it's right near zen center it's a great big tall building and they used to actually make money there they don't make money there anymore why not

[10:02]

Because they don't need to. There's some kind of initial around it. Those are the initials of the guy who... Maybe, I don't know. They're initials of the man who made the picture. Can I see those coins? Yeah. And there's a D on this quarter here. That usually stands for gender. Why do you not? Thank you, Amber. Amber has a really, oh, look at this beautiful old coin. This is a silver dollar of 18, I'm going to pass it around. This is a silver dollar from 1880. It's beautiful. You've made it real silver, and that's why it looks sort of black. Do you get a chance to look at it? Yep. It would be real hard to make one exactly like this.

[11:04]

All right. Now, I'd like to ask you all a question, which is, how do you get... What are the ways you can think of to get money? Be in a job. Be in a job? Yeah, Amber? Uh-uh. Those are... That's a kind of job. What other ways can you think of to get... Tim? Save people? How do you get money out? You mean, like, if you save somebody's life, they might give you a reward, give you some money? Yeah, like a dog. Yeah, you can get a reward. That's right, a reward is sort of like a way to get money. Anybody think of any other ways? I don't have a government to do it. Well, I know. Yeah, that's true. But how do ordinary people like you and I get money? Sam? We get allowances. You get allowances. You can get it from the bank.

[12:04]

But the bank just won't give you money if you don't have it. I know. Some people do it to get money. What? Bad guys. They steal money. Uh-huh. They steal money. And how about finding money? Is that a way to get money? Or should you just find it on the street? I found it on the street. You found the $5 bill? You did? I remember when she found the $1 bill, too. And Ben just mentioned that you can sell things. You can get money by selling things. Is this all being taped? Yeah. Because some people aren't here, so they can listen to it. And your parents want to listen to it. You can't, too. So let's think of... Is that a blackboard? Yeah. So let's just think of all the ways we thought of to get money. You can have a job. Do you know what it's, kids? Do you know what it's called when you get money for working at a job? What's that called? Salary? A salary. Salary. What is salary? Salary. I don't know if you know all these words, but here's the chart. What are you writing down?

[13:05]

I'm just writing down some of these words that we're talking about here. I'm going to try and open this. Salary. Anybody know how to spell salary? No. No. And I don't know. Salary. S-A-L-A-R-Y. Okay, now, there's different ways to get a salary. There's salaries where you're paid for every hour that you work. Or you can pay for every second. And that's called, when you work by the hour, it's called a wage. Or you work by the second. Usually paid by the hour. When you work for an hour, that's called a wage. Well, it depends on how much you're being paid for this thing. Now, does anybody know somebody who works at the bakery in San Francisco? How about Micah's dad? He's gone to work at the bakery, right? He's the manager of the bakery.

[14:09]

The person who's in charge. Oh. And people at the bakery, people at the Zen Center bakery, do you know what their wage is? What? $3.75 an hour. One dollar and one more. your wage. Actually, most people who work in bakeries make a lot more than that, but people in Zen Center are taking less money because they want to help Zen Center. So part of their wage is given back to Zen Center, and that way Zen Center can buy your food and buy the milk that you get in the kitchen, and all the things that we get. Okay, that's a wage, and When you work for money, there's a word that's the first of that, which is called earning. E-A-R-N. Right? E-A-R-N. So what we're talking about is that usually the way people get money is that they work, right? Yeah.

[15:09]

They have some job, and then for their work they're paid some money. And some jobs pay a lot of money, and some jobs pay a little money. Right, so I just get a lot of money. Yeah, Ivan and I were talking yesterday about different kinds of jobs and how much you get paid. And it isn't always exactly fair how much money you get paid, but it is true that certain jobs pay a lot more than other jobs. And just some examples of jobs that pay a lot of money are people who make computers. make a lot of money. My daddy makes pretty much money. He works in the winery. And, uh, dad? And something like the people that run the famous commercials and the commercials and movies. Uh-huh. And you know who else makes a lot of money? Dr. Jones. Businesses. Huh? And Dr. Jones. Managers and businesses make a lot of money. Doctors. Doctors make a lot of money. And you know who makes a really lot of money? It's sometimes athletes. Baseball players make more than the president sometimes. Do you know that?

[16:11]

Yeah. It's like a secretary. You know why that is? Well, because the manager usually of a business, like let's say Ken, you know, is the manager of the bakery. Now Ken has to think about all the different things. Let's talk about the bakery. Have you all been to the bakery? Yeah. Okay. What do they make at the bakery? Bread. Bread. Cookies. Pies. Pies. Cakes. Okay, what are those things made out of? Donuts. Donuts. Sugar. Flour, sugar. What else? Milk. Milk, eggs, butter. Now, where do you think the baker gets those things? Some sort of store that sells this, right? From a factory. From a factory or a warehouse, right. And do you think that the factory or the warehouse gives the baby those things for free? No, they have to buy them. They have to buy them with?

[17:12]

Money. Money, right. So they have to pay some money to get the things that you make, bread, pastry, pies, and everything out of, right? Donuts. Donuts? Donuts. Okay. And then people in the bakery put all those... You know what those things are called? They're called ingredients. You ever heard that word? Yeah. So you put all the ingredients together, the flour and the water and the milk and the butter and eggs and the sugar, all those things, and you make something. And then when that thing is all made, people bring it out to the front of the bakery and then they sell it, right? For? Money. Money. Now... How do you know how much to charge people for, let's say, a loaf of bread? Suppose you charge people a penny for a loaf of bread. No. Why would that not be good? Because a loaf of bread is maybe that big, and a penny is only worth one cent.

[18:17]

Yeah. And so I'd sell it for maybe about, How would you figure out how much to sell it for? How would you know? Ben? How many pounds? Let's hear what Ben has to say. I think the cost is not much. It's average about how much money you spend on the ingredients. And you add a little bit more, and you sell it. Otherwise you make a little money on each one. That's good. That's what it means to have a business. That's what it means to have a good business. And it appears people who manage businesses are people... Just a minute, Robin. I'm just answering Amber's... Amber brought something up about why managers of businesses are paid well because the manager is the one who has to figure out how much to charge for the loan for Greg. Now, Ben, you left one thing out, which probably you didn't think of, which is you also have to take into account that you're paying people...

[19:18]

make that bread right oh yeah that costs money too and taxes and other things so and also you have to pay rent to the man who owns the bakery because we don't own the bakery we just pay rent to the bakery right yeah so the bakery has we have to pay a man uh i think right now we're paying 600 every month to the man who owns the building the bakery is in, and that's called rent. You all know what rent is? Yeah. Yeah. Rent is when you pay some money to somebody who owns a house so that you can live there. Yes. Oh, I just want to make sure, um, oh, well, like, you can do, or you can do it, um, twice the amount of how the ingredients cost it. Uh-huh. I suppose you decided to sell the bread for $20. Would that be a smart idea? No, no, no, no. Nobody would buy it.

[20:21]

Why wouldn't they buy it? Because it costs too much. Yeah, so other people could sell bread for less. So you have to charge enough so that you... You make money and don't lose money, but if you charge too much, nobody will buy your bread because they know they can get bread somewhere else to buy. There's a way to get pretty much money. It's not for pretty cheap, and then lots of people come. That's right. Now, do you think that bread at our bakery is really, really good bread or really, really bad bread? It's okay. It's good. But I don't eat bread. You like Wonder Bread better, huh? I suppose people in San Francisco like our bread better than any other bread in San Francisco. They'd have to buy it. Does that mean that they'd probably pay more for our bread than for somebody else's bread? So part of what people pay money for is if something's really good, right? What? What? Well, if they want to charge more. If you don't take it, that's taking advantage of it.

[21:38]

You need to do that if you want more money. Does anybody know some other places that Zen Center has that make money besides the bakery? Green's. Green's is a restaurant on that island? Right near Zen Center? The Green Grocer? The Green Grocer? And also, us are selling that stuff there on Sundays. Yeah. Well, it makes a little, and those are things from the field here at Glingo. That's true. And... Tassajara. How does Tassajara make money? Do you guys know how Tassajara makes money? By people who... Yeah, they pay money to come and be there and use the hot baths and they eat food and they have a good time. And because they like to go there, people will pay money to Zen Center to go there.

[22:42]

And can anybody think of any other places that make money? There are a couple more. Really? Yep, there's Elias Dictionary. Do you all know Elias Dictionary? No. The place that makes the Zappos, the Zabatons, and the Batpants? I don't know. No? Lusa, Reb's wife, works there, and Annie Somerville used to work there. Maybe you don't know these people. And, uh... Lots of different people work there. And there's also, did you all know that Zen Center has a bookstore? Yeah! Yeah. And the bookstore makes money because we buy the books from the people. It's right near the restaurant at Fort Mason. Oh, that one? Great Greek bookstore. Oh, that one. Polar Bookstore. Oh, yeah. I've been there. I've got my picture in there. Yeah. And a bookstore makes money because you buy the books from the publisher. Publishers are people who make books. You buy the books from the publisher, and then you sell it to people for a little higher price. And you make money that way. Now, guess what happens to... I got some books from that bookstore. You did? Me too.

[23:42]

Good. I got some more Tintin books. Good. Oh, we sell Tintin books today. That's great. That must be a pretty good bookstore. They sell a whole bunch of children's books. Great. Now what do you think happens to all that money that Zen Center makes with all those businesses? They buy food. Well, first of all, it all comes together. We collect it all. And then we give it to people who are in Zen Center, who are your moms and dads, so that they can buy clothes and food and lunch boxes and all the things they need. Zen Center is not exactly a business, and people aren't exactly here to make money, so we use a little different word other than salary. This is a word you probably haven't heard. Stipend. Yeah, it's called a stipend. Stipend. A stipend is a little different from a salary. I'll explain what the difference is. S-T-I-P-E-N-D.

[24:43]

It's a race car. Stipend. You all see it? Yeah. S-T-I-P-E-N-D. Stipend. Well, is it going to happen? Right there, stypan. Is it going to happen? Yeah, we're almost finished, John. I just want to say a few more things about a stypan. A stypan is, it's actually sort of like the grown-ups version of an allowance. But they get much more money. Yeah, but it's basically what we all do is all the money the Zen Center has is put together and then all the people in Zen Center share it. We divide it up and we share it. And we share it based... It's not exactly everybody gets the same. We share it on the basis of how much you need. Now, who do you think needs more? A person who lives all alone in the Gaitan and isn't married or a family with a mother and a father and three children? What do you think needs more? Mother and father and three children. You think so, Arvin? Yeah. Because you have to buy clothes for all those children and you have to give them what?

[25:44]

Allowances. Allowances. And you have to buy them popsicles. And you have to buy their bus pass. And you have to buy their bus box. And you have to take them to movies and all that sort of stuff, right? And you have to buy stuff and stuff. Right. If you're living all by yourself and you don't have any kids, you don't need to buy all those things. So we share the money, and people get stipends, and the stipends are based on how much you need, right? Like my mommy needed... A lot of money for Michael's dinner. Right. So do we help with that? Alone with the sheep. Alone with the sheep. All right. So that's where your money comes from. I wanted to explain it to you because I wasn't sure you knew about that. Do you have any questions before we stop? Yeah. Do you have any money for us to get money? Well, there's two different kinds of work, I think.

[26:53]

We have to know the difference between them. There's the kind of work, it's just the ordinary work that everybody does, right? Like cleaning and cooking the food, growing the vegetables, things like that. And then there's special work that most people don't usually do. And maybe that, and like Vincent, some of you guys sold lemonade. Yeah. Well, that's the kind of special work that you guys made the lemonade and then you sold it to people. And that's a different kind of work than ordinary work. Maybe we can think of some ways. And if you guys think of some ways, you can give me or Mark or Gloria suggestions of ways you have to make money. If we think they're good suggestions, we'll try to help you do it. Hi there. Yeah. That's true. Just like the bakery, she has to pay for its ingredients. What are the ingredients of hot chocolate? Yeah. I can make it out of milk and chocolate.

[28:07]

Milk and chocolate? Or water. Or milk and spilt, like rum and chocolate. So you can get chocolate bars? Uh-huh. I can get chocolate bars probably for 50 cents. Well, I think we can think of some good ways for you guys to make some money, but it isn't like the usual way. By collecting eggs, I don't think... Uh, it's quite right, at least the grown-ups here at Green Gals don't think it's quite right to pay these guys for collecting eggs because that's just part of the work that we're doing. And any kid who lives on a farm should do certain things just because they're living there and it's part of the farm. But other things, like for instance, uh, maybe somebody could hire you to help clean their house or wash their windows. That would be a good job. Or wash somebody's car, if you guys could wash a car. A window wiper. A window wiper?

[29:09]

A window wiper. When you get as old as Amber, I hear Amber, did you do some babysitting? When you get as old as, some of you guys get as old as Amber, do you babysit? It's a good job. But usually you have to be about 11 or 12 before people want you to wash. be babysitting. So when you're old enough for that, you can babysit. Any other ideas? Selling pictures. Selling pictures? You did? What did you do? Me and my friend drew some pictures. When we had Easter. I'm not going to show you the picture. Oh, really? Do people like it? Yeah. Well, that's a good idea. Maybe somebody will like it. If there's anything you think that you do exceptionally well in drawing, like if you draw maybe two dozen pictures, by the way, and you can choose that from there, you might be able to do it.

[30:17]

It's tough. Okay, well, those are good suggestions. If you guys think of anything else, please let me know, and I think I'm going to, uh, uh... Or sell your old clothes. Well, I think that what we usually do in Zen Sunday with our old clothes is we put them in the goodwill so that other people can use them. Out in town. Out in town? That would be sort of... Amber did all my clothes for me. And if she gets a big ball for me. So Amber was just saying that she had some shoes that she didn't ever wore? Yeah, I didn't go to the best place. And Santa Claus was out there and he looked so cool. Uh-huh. I was built to be. Uh-huh. Yes, Ivan? Well, what I can say for all for that and sound like, um, Well, there's, I've heard of some good, good, um, places called Bingo's Mirage.

[31:22]

That would sell all things. Usually places like that have their clothes given to them by people who don't need them anymore. I'd like you, if possible, to concentrate on things where you could earn some money by your work. Because that's the best way to make money. That's the way people feel best about you. And I have to go back to a meeting now, so I have to stop. One last thing. Yeah. Uh-huh, that's a possibility. Yeah, I do. I have to go back to the staff meeting. But I'm going to meet with you guys again in two weeks. And if you guys have any suggestions about something you'd like me to talk about... I'll write them down. You write them down or tell them to Gloria and she can tell me, okay? Uh-huh. That's right. That's a possibility. We could hire you guys to weed our gardens. Okay. Thank you very much. Bye.

[32:19]

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