The only universal currency is opportunity. The reward of possessing an opportunity, the promise of a positive outcome, is stable. The rewards of the outcomes are, on the contrary, very volatile. Thus, an opportunity is itself more valuable than the outcome of the same opportunity. This makes opportunity the most valuable resource known to mankind.
Opportunity manifests in two forms: youth and money. Youth provides the opportunity to create an outcome later, money provides the opportunity to create an outcome sooner. This is why being old and poor is unattractive, but being young and poor is not necessarily.
However, it is better to be young and poor than old and rich because the opportunity of the young encompasses the old and rich outcome. The wealth of youth is therefore more valuable than the wealth of money. It is ironic then, to trade our youth for the pursuit of money. It is like spending $5 to earn $3. We do it, however, because we know that youth is spent either way, and we need to compensate for it when it's gone.
