Kat
Jorgensen
American
Economies in the 19th Century
Prof.
Rainville
6
September 2012
Throughout college, students are
treated to long and frightening lectures that repeatedly emphasize the idea of a sixty hour college
work week. Synonymous with long hours
of studying are assignments that require scholarly research that is often
hosted through databases such as JSTOR and EBSCO. Access to scholarly research and data is
critical, not only for academic success, but the databases in which much of
this information is contained helps to shorten the research process. Due to the
fact that every vixen is an active student and will most likely have a need for
scholarly research, access cards to all of the Sweet Briar College databases
should be the foundation for a new SBC currency. Creating an electronic system
that would allocate a certain number of article downloads as payment for goods
and services would essentially create a monetary system based on the electronic
transfer of information and knowledge.
A SBC currency with a foundation
resting on access to secured databases relies on using access cards, similar to
gift cards, as payment for goods and services. To implement the logistical side
of this monetary system it would be necessary to create an electronic access system
to all library databases, in which students could swipe or enter a pin number,
and therefore would be granted access to download the allotted number of
articles as denoted on that specific denomination of SBC. Unlike many other
currencies that rely upon access to natural resources for the production of the
currency, such as gold or paper, the SBC Currency is entirely electronic.
However, the means of transferring the SBC requires plastic access cards that
can be exchanged as a form of money.
SBC currency cards would be designed
in such a way to be reflective of the information they represent and the vixen
community. Books and other intellectual materials cover the background and the
top is embellished with the terms "Vixen Currency." Located in the lower right corner is the
value amount in denominations of one, five, ten or fifty downloads on SBC
databases.
Using a currency based upon access
to critical knowledge and information indicates that as a community, Sweet Briar
places the most value on academic success and learning. Many societies value
education and knowledge to the degree that they free education is provided to
all. American society as a whole proclaimed their value on education as being
priceless by creating a public school system. However, the philosophy that
everyone has equal access to education has never been completely true, as shown
by the existence of private educational institutes.
The economic value of the SBC
currency, when related to the American dollar, would be reflective of the
academic value of achieving a high GPA and the monetary cost of producing the
academic articles. College academic officials not only encourage students to
utilize reliable scholarly research but expect students to rely upon their
sources as the basis in a majority of all assignments. In universities across
the nation the cost of each credit hour ranges from five hundred to one
thousand dollars. For a majority of classes, scholarly research is necessary to
fully earn the credit. With this
reasoning, the SBC currency should have a higher exchange rate than the
American dollar because the SBC currency not only acts as a payment method but
also plays a significant role in the earning of college credit.
Due to the inherent relationships
between the SBC and the American dollar, the value of the SBC should be three
to four times that of the American dollar. For example, a one download card
should have a real world value of approximately three American dollars. This
value takes into account the educational worth on one article when compared to
the cost of an entire course tuition as well as similar real world membership
payments to access databases similar to JSTOR.
Furthermore, education opportunities
have instead become a defining characteristic of social and economic class with the wealthy
being able to afford more prestigious educational institutions. Economic wealth
is crucial to the stratification of social classes, and by combining economic
and monetary policy with access to scholarly research, education and learning will
become more heavily valued. For example,
in today's academic sphere, many of the assignments that require the use of
academic databases are done at the last minute in a hurried fashion. By using
an SBC Currency founded on critical academic resources, students would
inherently be more focused on coursework and would also be required to prepare
in advance for access to necessary resources for their assignments. Essentially,
by placing a value on scholarly resources and using these resources as a basis
of a monetary system, students would be encouraged, by economic means, to value
their education and resources to a higher degree.
In placing importance on the ability
to access scholarly resources, the economic value of this ability must be
decided. Using an educational resource as a foundation to a monetary system naturally
leads to a variety of social values. Although all students would see the access
cards as having the same economic exchange rate, students who are committed to
their academics would value their download privileges more than those who have
fewer academic priories. Therefore, it could
be expected that higher achieving students would be the most likely be
frugal with their access cards.
Basing the monetary system of Sweet
Briar on the new SBC Currency would result in new defining characteristics of
class structure. With the use of access cards to databases as a payment form,
those with the most financial security and wealth would inherently also have
the most access to databases. Therefore, because access to scholarly databases
is necessary for academic success, those who are wealthiest mostly likely would
also be in the best academic standing. Inherently this monetary system would
decimate the American dream that opportunity is available to those that work
the hardest, as the resources to a quality education would become solely for
those that could forfeit large sums of money necessary to do well in the
academic realm. Essentially, a SBC Currency founded on access to databases
would inherently lead to the wealthy controlling access to a large source of knowledge and therefore the
wealthy could indirectly manipulate the perspectives and decisions of the lower
social classes.
