The real reason printing more money never works
“Dad, why don’t they just make more money so everyone can be rich?” A simple question every child asks—and the kind every parent struggles to answer.
During the war in 1942–1945, Japan flooded the Philippines with new pesos—fresh ink, bold promise, no soul. They called it “Japanese Government-issued money.” But Filipinos called it Mickey Mouse money—because it looked real but had no roots.
Every real peso must stand on something called reserves—gold, dollars, or anything of real value kept by the government. Those reserves prove a country can pay what it prints. Japan printed and printed without gold or trust to back it up. Soon, prices exploded. People carried baskets of bills to buy rice. When the war ended, the paper turned worthless.
In the old days, money was backed by gold bars locked in vaults. Today, it’s backed by trust—our belief that the economy, businesses, and people are working honestly. If that trust breaks, money collapses again, just like before.
Imagine there are only ten cupcakes in town and ₱1,000 total. Each cupcake costs ₱100. Now someone prints another ₱1,000, but no one bakes more cupcakes. Suddenly, people are willing to pay ₱200 per cupcake. Did we get richer? Nope. We just made the same cupcakes more expensive. That’s inflation—more paper, same value.
Money gets its worth not from the printing machine but from real work and honest trade. Gold and paper may change, but the real reserve is trust. Lose that—and even the brightest bills turn into cartoon money again.
⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ
