Saturday, August 18, 2012

Assertion #2: Money is an Evil I'd Like to Try

There are so many cliches about money.  Things like, money doesn't buy happiness, money is the root of all evil (which is a misquote of a bible verse). I totally agree that money does not bring about happiness. As the late rapper will attest to "Mo Money, Mo Problems."  Greed can be the cause of all kinds of horrible things in this world.  The pursuit of money above all else creates sweat shops where poor kids work 12 hour days for little money in horrible working environments.  It causes wealth at the expense of others.  It causes unnecessary competition between people.  Greed creates a lot of problems, that's why it's a deadly sin.

Money itself is neutral.  It doesn't create anything.  The correction to the misquote above is something like, "the love of money in the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  Not that money is evil.  Money is a tool. Greed is evil.  I disagree with our late rapper friend, Biggie Smalls, I believe mo money, different problems,  which doesn't flow as well in a song.  Not being able to pay the rent, feed your child, feed yourself are all real problems.  Not knowing where your next meal comes from is a problem.  Deciding between whether you are going to eat or child will have diapers is a problem.  There are a lot of problems that go along with little or no money.

I can talk about the problems associated with not having much money.  Student loans helps me understand some of those problems, but not the extremes that I mentioned above.  I don't know what the problems are with having "mo money".  I would like to experience those problems.  I would like to know the problems, but only for research, of course.  This isn't greed, right?

Here is the song I referenced several times: