Economy of Joy

Another time and another place once shared this very spot, and, back then, the community that thrived here was known as Bnrogio (pronounced like the sound of the ocean when you put a fåeryle shell to your ear). This was one of the cultures with a special form of money: their currency was joy—it was how you bought goods, paid workers, bought land, everything. A great meal could make chef and diner escalatingly wealthy in a single evening. Paying bills and taxes cheered all parties and just working for the pleasure of it was enough to take care of your family. But there were challenges: any exchange rate with other gwomes (entities a bit like nations) was obviously impossible since money cannot buy happiness. This could make travel heart-breaking because, invariably, citizens of Bnrogio would find themselves quite sad when their beautiful money was deemed no good—which naturally made them poorer (a poverty spiral that could be crippling or worse).