1Reviews and everything / Money is the root of all evil problem situation

Alex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com

Group 501

Problem Situation on the Topic Is Money the Root of All Evil?

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and occasionally, a standard of deferred payment.

Briefly speaking about the history of money I can say that the early Persians deposited their grain in state or church grainaries. The receipts of deposit were then used as methods of payment in the economies. Thus, banks were invented before coins. Ancient Egypt had a similar system, but instead of receipts they used orders of withdrawal - thus making their system very close to that of modern checks. However, money is older than written history. Recent anthropological and linguistic research indicates that not only is money very old, but it’s origin has little to do with trading, thus contradicting another common myth. Rather, money was first used in a social setting. Probably at first as a method of punishment. Early stone age man began the use of precious metals as money. Until the invention of coins, metals were weighed to determine their value. Counting is of course more practical, the first standardized ingots appeared around 2200 BC. Other commonplace objects were subsequently used in the abstract sense, for example miniature axes, nails, swords, etc.

Full standardization arrived with coins, approximately 700 BC. The first printed money appeared in China, around 800 AD. The first severe inflation was in the 11th century AD. The Mongols adapted the bank note system in the 13th century, which Marco Polo wrote about. The Mongol bank notes were “legal tender”, I.e. it was a capital offense to refuse them as payment. By the late 1400s, centuries of inflation found eliminated printed bank notes in China. They were reinvented in Europe in the wake 17th century.

Money seems to be important. It can be proven by the mere fact that most of us have to do with every day, to buy, to borrow, to lend, to feel happy or miserable about. We make it, we spend it, we throw it away, we crave it, we hoard it, we pursue it – in 3 words, it is important.

It has long been thought that money is the root of all evil. However, it should be mentioned that this is a misquote from the Bible. Root of all evil is a figure of speech denoting something that causes all wickedness or suffering. By extension, it may be applied to any cause of serious problems. The phrase derives from a saying attributed to Jesus in the Apostle Paul's First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament: "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10, KJV). The expression is commonly misquoted as simply "Money is the root of all evil".

Let us have a look at the arguments to proof or disproof the statement.

Pros:

1. Money is a capitalist weapon for exploitation. It is a means of control. As long as a person has to earn money, he or she is has to obey certain rules.

2. Wealth, claimed by the religious representatives, is a sin if it is not accumulated for a 'godly' purpose. Renunciation is the catchword, poverty the goal and austerity the norm of the day. If you did not practice these, you were a sinner, decreed to being either reborn as a lower animal if a Hindu, or to be barbecued in the fires of hell, if a Christian.

3. Money corrupts because it stands for power and status in the society. People who want it will crave for more money.

4. Making money means that you have spend time earning it instead of developing your spiritual potential. Robert Growes once said, “I cannot afford to waste my time making money”.

5. A lot of people equate money with happiness. It surely lets you see how much you do, travel, buy and do other things.

6. Money has long been at the heart of American dream. A lot of people tried to achieve it. But on their way to the top, in their search of a better life and money they sacrificed their relationships with their friends and family thus disintegrating society and forgetting that they are part of it, or as the 16c century poet John Donne put it, “no man is an island but a part of the whole continent of humanity…”.

7. Money as the power and status that it symbolizes is the source of major conflicts and wars. The more gold, land, oil or any other material resouces a country has the more powerful and influential it is.

8. Money is one of the reasons why borders exist between states because countries are trying to protect their wealth.

Cons:

1. "Money has served as a medium of exchange after trying a variety of other items, which were found lacking," explains N.K. Somani, CMD of Shree Vindhya Paper Mills, Mumbai. “Every person needs products and services in life. Money plays the role of a recognized value for the exchange of commodities and services. If there was no commonly-accepted unit for these transactions, there would be anarchy in the world."

2. "Money is the source of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life." Perhaps it is worthwhile to wonder why money still draws so much flak. Why is it that most people hesitate to proclaim that they actually like money? What's the taboo all about? When did a simple tool for exchange metamorphose into an ambivalent entity that is at once a source of shame and exultation?

3. How do some religions treat money? Ditto in Hinduism. Artha, or wealth, is legitimate; money is indispensable in the present state of society. A man of the world without money is a failure; he cannot keep body and soul together. In fact, according to an injunction of Hinduism, first comes the body and next the practice of religion.

4. Money is needed to build hospitals, schools, museums, and educational institutions, which distinguish a civilized society from a primitive one.

5. Money gives leisure, a key factor in the creation of culture.

6. Money does not corrupt. It depends on the user. Corrupt people become more corrupt with it."

7. Money is an indicator of practical success.

8. Some people believe that money is your reward for growing spiritually.

9. "A person who desires money," says Canada-based Adarsh Jain, a professor of philosophy, "desires it for a purpose. If you are greedy, you will forever covet, irrespective of how much you have. And this has nothing to do with your social or monetary status. A millionaire can be as greedy as a daily wage earner."

10. Money helps to found charities and donations that people make help to save lives of millions.

11. John Stussel, host of the 20/20 American TV show's episode on the positive side of greed, accurately puts it: "Bill Gates is a good example. He's now one of the world's richest men. He's got about $40 billion. But does his having $40 billion mean the rest of us have lost $40 billion? No."

To conclude this presentation I would like to say that money is just a tool. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with it. It all depends on a person whether to crave for it or let go of it and treat it. Money is not the reason for wars, it is the human being that makes the choice, how he chooses to respond to violence – in a violent way or in a nonviolent one.

As Shakespeare said, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". It reflects admirably, as far as I see it, the fact that at different time different people can hold different views towards almost anything. If today money is seen as a symbol of success, then in a generation the attitude can change drastically. For me, however, happiness does not have a lot to do with money – look at how many unhappy rich people there are! As JKR said in her commencement address to Harvard graduates, “personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life”.

If somebody wanted to play a trick on humanity, I think money was a very good joke. You have to struggle to survive, to earn something – what for? I understand the importance of money in the present day society. However, I am not motivated by it since for me the quality of life in terms of emotional and inner comfort is more important, not the status in the society – though it will come inevitably with time. Also, the need to develop spiritually and learn is more of a priority to me that making money. What the heck? We’re all gonna die anyway and money is something you cannot take with you after your life ends. Also, I am convinced that there is no way to prosperity – prosperity is the way! And remember Oscar Wilde, “Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you”.

The sources I have used:

1. Brief History of Money http://www.sics.se/~psm/payments/sld013.htm

2. http://www.best-quotes-poems.com/money-quotes.html

3. http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon

5. http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/money/money-article.asp

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora's_box

7. http://www.calicocat.com/2004/05/is-money-root-of-all-evil.html

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