ABSTRACT
Money is a symbol and has most often been linked to the political authority and served as a disciplinary device. A sovereign currency can enhance the power of the state. Marx's labor theory of value is in a particular form related to the specifics of the institutions of capitalism. Simmel begins his Philosophy of Money by assuming two categories: being and value. A very different approach can build on game theory. In modern capitalist economies, money is a symbolic representation of time—work time, life time—linking money to "perpetuity", or infinite time. The role of money is important in the institutions of capitalism, yet money existed for centuries before the emergence of capitalism. The capacity of money to represent value in an abstract form can facilitate individualism and freedom, on the one hand, as well as alienation and isolation on the other.
