Mad Money – College Essay Example

job, it is clear that Bridget’s background in the workforce does not help her find a decent modest-salary job. She has been out of the workforce for a while, raised her two children, has a degree in comparative literature, and is not proficient on computer software.

An education in comparative literature is a very slow sector in the economy and the degree is not in high demand. With no other options left, she accepted a cleaning job at a local branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. There, we find out the main operations of the Bank and understand that the workers must not think about wanting the money that surrounds them daily, as this would cause them to think about theft. Bridget is appalled to find out that thousands of worn out bills are shredded, as new bills are printed at the Mint. At a critical point in the movie, Bridget went shopping to buy a new faucet at a home improvement store.

Bridget was surrounded by home improvement goods. It is mentioned in the movie that even though individuals already have certain goods, they want to consume and demand more goods, especially when the stores and retails lay out the goods in an attractive layout. Our society is a consumer society. This causes Bridget to plan a scheme to steal the worn-out dollars bills scheduled for destruction. However in order to achieve this plan, Bridget enlisted Nina, a single mom who works the dollar bill shredder, and Jackie, who takes the bill carts from the Secret Service room to the shredding room.

Nina only wanted to participate so she will be

able to send her children to a private school. Bridget’s reason to steal the worn-out bills was that the money that is sent to be shredded officially does not exist anymore because of its condition. Since the money will be shredded, a consumer might as well spend it. The spent money will then transfer to another bank, and Bridget will pull money from the system again. She calls this process “recycling”, as it seems she stealing the same money over and over again.

However, Bridget’s husband went against her reasoning, saying that she must think about the overall system of monetary flow. The Mint prints out certain amount of money relating to assets in other parts of the economic system and decrease the value of the dollar. Printing more money will cause inflation. Inflation will cause the price of goods to rise, which the government would have to increase benefits and wages in line with inflation. Also, government spending will rise. Borrowers would require to pay higher interest rates to buy bonds.

An example of printing more money is in 1922, to meet Allied reparations, Weimar Germany printed more money which caused the hyperinflation of the 1920’s, which led to the collapse of the economy. In the end, the three women were able to rob the bank for three years without setting the alarm. However, the law enforcement was tipped off of their doing and arrested everyone involved except for Bridget, who was able to hire a tax attorney to defend them. Because the law enforcement and the Federal Bank Examiner couldn’t prove that the large amount of cash in the homes came

from the Reserve, Bridget and her team were off the hook.

But, in accordance to US Code section 7201, the women did not pay the taxes on their extravagant spending because they couldn’t justify the income. So, the IRS demanded they pay their taxes, which turns out to be equal in amount to the money that still remains. As much as it is tempting to steal money from the Federal Reserve Bank, with all that cash laying around, it would cause an unbalance in trade and currency. So, we must understand the economics behind currency and inflation. However, because of financial stress, we might have a second thought about that.