In various posts around the internet I witness a lot of hostility against money. Why?
Do people believe that in a world/society/civilization without money they can end up on top of the heap? They can be the new "rich"? Or that everyone will finally be perfectly "equal", economically?
So, I have some questions and observations for money haters:
How do you plan to buy food if the guy who has what you want to eat, doesn't need what you have to trade? Money won't go away because it is what makes trade convenient and easy.
People who don't understand money make it out to be this magical, mysterious Unknown (and generally their enemy), but it isn't. It is simply having something in your pocket that is almost universally accepted in trade for what you want. That's it.
If you can come up with a way to facilitate trade without "money", you will have invented money.
A "Resource Based Economy" ("RBE") can supplement money, but never totally replace it. In fact, I see the RBE as making a different type of money. When you assign some "trade value" to something you produce or take, you are making up "money". Unless I can just bake a cupcake and trade it for a new car...
There is no ethical difference between trading beans, goats, shoes, or gold for a cow, but there is a practical difference. I might not need a cow's worth of beans or shoes right now, but if you pay me with money, I can buy shoes, beans, and whatever else I need when I need them. I don't have to try to keep up with who owes me what, if I only needed 1/100 cow of beans this week, but traded you the whole cow anyway.
Money is an awesome innovation that won't go away just because you don't understand it and therefore fear or hate it.
It doesn't bother me if you want to live without money. Personally, I love to trade.
I just don't understand the hostility toward people who choose to continue to use money, too. I suspect I would continue to be broke in either system, since I seem to not be producing what many others want- and money or not, that is the root of the problem.
I think both ways could happily coexist alongside one another. But, please, don't hate on money- it just showcases your ignorance.
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Very good, Kent. And, to the money-haters out there, think of this. When all humans were hunter-gatherers there was no need for money. When we became agriculturalists, then wealth could be accumulated, rich people and rulers--first kings and princes, later prime ministers and presidents--became possible, and then oppression. So, if you hate money, you should also hate agriculture and go someplace where you can live the hunter-gatherer life style.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I have never liked the phrase "Money is the root of all evil." That is the exact opposite of the truth, as you explain so well above, Kent. Money is the root of all economy, because not only does it facilitate trade, it offers a relative standard that allows economic calculation. People can now consider the relative merits of various opportunities with a tool that reveals profit and loss.
ReplyDeleteMoney is too often seen as synonymous with great wealth. The view of money as a useful tool get's buried in the barrage of hate spewing envy that is aimed at large accumulations of wealth being held by the few. The irrational fear of useful tools stemming from emotional reactions that overwhelm rational thought seems to be par for the course these days. Thanks for helping to keep common sense alive, Kent.
Actually, Mark, the phrase is: "The *love* of money is the root of all evil." I take that to mean to love money above all else, a.k.a., greed.
DeleteYou may find that many who would say that, "Money is the root of all evil", are actually misquoting a verse from the bible which is, "The love of money is the root of all evil".
DeleteNow if you hear someone making that quote, you may ask them what the source of their information is; and, if they say the bible, then kindly correct them so they don't look stupid down the road should they engage someone more familiar with scripture than they.