Money is the root to all evil...yay or nay?

Of course money isn't the root of all evil. It's a very simplistic way of looking at the world and anyone who thinks that way obviously hasn't thought much about it. To give a short list of acts commonly considered to be evil yet have no relation to money whatsoever:

- Child rape and molestation (child porn and sex trafficking not withstanding)
- "Normal" rape
- Revenge killings (such as a woman killing her husband for having an affair)
- Political terrorism
- Serial murders
- Genocide

There will never be a perfect society.

Don't worry about abolishing the money system, it's never going to happen. At least not in our lifetime.

That's just a dream world.

Money is absolutely the root of all evil. Correction- it is just the catalyst that brings out the evil. The desire for money promotes selfishness and greed. It is an isolated entity with a face, much like a drug. Instead of focusing on people and well being, Capitalism introduces this singular (often physical-greenbacks) entity which is the focus and idol of countless ignorant millions of people. Instead of focusing on the (qualitative) quality of life as a reference point, people focus on the quantitative amount of cash they possess as a measure of the quality of their life. This is very distorted and disturbed. How many people do you know that are loaded, yet miserable pricks, where the golf course or country club seems to be their only sanctuary?

There will never be a perfect society.

Don't worry about abolishing the money system, it's never going to happen. At least not in our lifetime.

That's just a dream world.

SupaKoopaTroopa

Or rather, a nightmare world.

Hope you're right.

Money is absolutely the root of all evil. Correction- it is just the catalyst that brings out the evil. The desire for money promotes selfishness and greed. It is an isolated entity with a face, much like a drug. Instead of focusing on people and well being, Capitalism introduces this singular (often physical-greenbacks) entity which is the focus and idol of countless ignorant millions of people. Instead of focusing on the (qualitative) quality of life as a reference point, people focus on the quantitative amount of cash they possess as a measure of the quality of their life. This is very distorted and disturbed. How many people do you know that are loaded, yet miserable pricks, where the golf course or country club seems to be their only sanctuary?

compost-mentis

Money causes all evil you say? Interesting, and here I only thought that 40 year old guys raped 4 year old girls because they have abnormal sexual urges that make them prone to doing that kind of stuff. Also, I guess it makes sense that the Al Qaeda flew planes into the twin towers for financial profit as well.

Yep, if it wasn't for selfishness and greed there wouldn't be any evil in the world. No one would be killing each other over things like religion or ethnicity, people wouldn't be getting raped, and you'd certainly never run across disturbed individuals who kill for the hell of it.

No, people are the root of all evil.

Money isn't the driver here, it's a person's words and actions that defines them.

Money is an abstract concept: a person can find any reason to commit evil acts. It is more correct to blame a person instead of an abstract concept.

Greed is the root of all evil.

[QUOTE="SupaKoopaTroopa"]

There will never be a perfect society.

Don't worry about abolishing the money system, it's never going to happen. At least not in our lifetime.

That's just a dream world.

m0zart

Or rather, a nightmare world.

Hope you're right.

Who do you think would win, Hipster Anarchists or the American Capitalist Empire?

Who do you think would win, Hipster Anarchists or the American Capitalist Empire?

SupaKoopaTroopa

I don't think "Who would win?" is the most important question to a thread like this one. More important would be "What would be the ultimate outcome of destroying money?"

Ibelieve that money is little more than a means of exchanging value for value -- i.e. value that I own myself for value that someone else owns, in an honest exchange. It's just a neutral medium of exchange. Removing the money Governments print won't magically destroy money as a working concept. Before Governments printed money, ways were found by common people to exchange value for value using gold, silver, and other rare substances as neutral mediums of exchange that were universally recognized, with or without dictators or elected officials printed on the face of the coins or other form that these monetary instruments took. Barter systems were simply not as free flowing or as easy to manage as more neutral and divisible value systems.

No, to destroy "money" would require more than shutting down the Mints. It would require guns and lots of them, all pointed in the direction of any individuals who wanted to use it as an exchange of value for value. It would require a large and in charge organization monitoring all of us for any hint of monetary exchange. And the picture of the world that would create isn't one I find all that attractive.

Ironically, even most Communisms don't just up and destroy money. Still, there have been a few attempts to destroy money in the previous century -- Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to name one of the most prominent ones. The result is that everyone found themselves with nearly every escape route cut off -- all trapped in a country-sized concentration camp.

I am fond of idealism and idealists, even when they don't arrive at the same conclusions I do. But this one conclusion always makes me a bit more wary than the average idealistic crusade. I don't think it would be merely a disaster to destroy money, but an outright catastrophy of epic proportions.

Ignorance is the source. Had all these people taken the

time to investigate the nature of things, they wouldnt be greedy.

no

an inanimate object cannot be evil

money aids in trade and trade is peace, so the only way to world peace is free trade and with out money that is a hard to do. unless the goal of world peace is evil i dont see how money can be called evil.

Eh... people want things. So if money is not necessary to get those things they will find another way of getting them.Nifty_Shark

edit: me and my bro just had this convo, lol

Francisco's Money Speech: From Atlas Strugged

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?..."

Read the whole speech, it's awesome.

Francisco's Money Speech: From Atlas Strugged

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?..."

Read the whole speech, it's awesome.

fat_rob

money aids in trade and trade is peace, so the only way to world peace is free trade and with out money that is a hard to do. unless the goal of world peace is evil i dont see how money can be called evil.

surrealnumber5

If money weren't the root of all evil, then this would not be accurate.scorch-62

[QUOTE="fat_rob"]

Francisco's Money Speech: From Atlas Strugged

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?..."

Read the whole speech, it's awesome.

surrealnumber5

Money in itself is neither good nor evil. It's what people want/choose to do with it that makes the difference.

Money isn't the root of all evil. The saying is actually, "the love of money is the root of all evil". It's a commonly misquoted saying. Money in and of itself is not a bad thing, but greed is.

Naaa, money is not the root of all evil, greed however is, and trust me, people do not need money to be greedy.

Naaa, money is not the root of all evil, greed however is, and trust me, people do not need money to be greedy.

Maddie_Larkin

[QUOTE="surrealnumber5"]

money aids in trade and trade is peace, so the only way to world peace is free trade and with out money that is a hard to do. unless the goal of world peace is evil i dont see how money can be called evil.

-Sun_Tzu-

in a perfect society, money would be non existent.

Will a resource based economy work? is it possible?

this video is very convincing

Revolution316

Money doesnt make people evil, People make people evil.

Money has no value its just a piece of paper but people put value to it. and thats what makes it evil

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="surrealnumber5"]

money aids in trade and trade is peace, so the only way to world peace is free trade and with out money that is a hard to do. unless the goal of world peace is evil i dont see how money can be called evil.

surrealnumber5

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="surrealnumber5"] justice is way to subjective for me in that definition, free trade has brought more peace then any other policy in human history. think about the EU now and europe prior WW2 when tariffs were ample and wars were common place. trade does not start war political figures who would rather take then trade on the other hand.......surrealnumber5

[QUOTE="surrealnumber5"][QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"] Trade doesn't start war? Then explain the Opium wars. -Sun_Tzu-

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"]

[QUOTE="surrealnumber5"] "war political figures who would rather take then trade on the other hand......."fat_rob

And to repeat what I said about the definition of peace and how the presence of justice is necessary for peacefulness to be present - sure, "justice" can sometimes be hard to determine, but were the African people who were going through the Middle Passage experiencing the joys of peacefulness? Of course not, and if that can be agreed upon then you can't really equivocate trade to peace.

[QUOTE="fat_rob"][QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"] Had it not been for the opium trade, the opium wars wouldn't have happened. Trade can lead to trade disputes, and trade disputes can lead to war. Therefore, trade can lead to war. Sure, the prospect of trade can sometimes lead people to peace rather than conflict, but to equivocate trade to peace is nonsense.

-Sun_Tzu-

And to repeat what I said about the definition of peace and how the presence of justice is necessary for peacefulness to be present - sure, "justice" can sometimes be hard to determine, but were the African people who were going through the Middle Passage experiencing the joys of peacefulness? Of course not, and if that can be agreed upon then you can't really equivocate trade to peace.