Money = Knowledge?

Some of my research has tried to equate Money with Knowledge. I can see why they may think that. A good case in point is a friend of mine asking me to come over and fix their computer. I am cheap and I only charge $20.00 and hour. She fed me homemade cupcakes and plied me with coffee and a pop. I was there for about 4 hours, but part of that time I did not charge for since I had to download some stuff and ran a couple of scans. Since I was just sitting around watching TV and chatting I only charged her $50.00. She liked what I had done so much she got her mother to bring over her computer and I worked my magic on it as well. Another $50.00 and 2 happy customers later, I got thinking about the money I just earned.

Was it the information I have learned as a Certified Electronic Technician that they paid for or was it the service and my charming personality? I think it may be a little of both. They can find out the same information I have about computers if they had the time to read and work on as many as I have. They are paying for my time in the sense of $20/hour, but they are paying that rate because of the hundreds of hours invested in my understanding computers. Did they pay that rate because I had an expensive laptop with me and looked like I knew what I was doing? I think image has something to do with it too. Friendship was also involved and my friend knows how busy I am, so to ask for that much of my time was asking a favour of me. That also was part of it.

My conclusion is that earning money has more to it than just buying a person’s knowledge or skill. Knowledge is certainly part of it, but not the whole of it.

Michael J. Kaer