theFool

It is a state of mind. I always say, if I need it, that "I need to get some money" or "I need to make some money"... with this attitude it is very easy to get hold of some money if it is needed.

Wanting and wishing leads nowhere.

Someone else poorer and lower in the hierarchy

Money is a store of value and a medium of exchange, the key word being exchange. The idea that people are "enslaved" by money seems to be a more recent meme, spouted off eagerly by hipsters without much serious thought. Nobody is really enslaved by money, because the people working to make it see their time/efforts spent as an equivalent exchange, else they would not be doing it. In some cases, the products and services are cheaper because of some points along the manufacturing/sourcing process people are exploited or paid unfair wages, but this is not always the case and certainly does not amount to enslavement.

If you buy a steak from directly from a farmer, is the farmer your slave? Your argument only looks at the worst case scenarios and is contrary to the original function of money. Very much a "guns kill people, so let's ban guns" argument.

People who make money usually provide some service in exchange. Does providing services make one a servant?

I don't think that the problem is with the exchange of goods and services through a medium (such as 'money'), but more with the mentality of extreme greed and abuse. (hoarding/limiting available resources to increase prices, child labor, stock manipulation, irresponsible private and government spending, political interventionism and money printing, etc...)

I can't do EVERYTHING myself. What I can't barter for, I have to pay for. I have no problem with that.

As an example, the glassblower who makes my special custom items, is he my 'servant'?

I can't make glassware. He can, and I sure think he deserves compensation for his work and time.

Nothing is truly 'free'. If you/we get something 'for free', someone else paid for it. We even have to 'work' to get air! ("breathe in, breathe out").

One might argue that 'love' is free. But when does it ever come 'cheap'...

Everything has a price, but there are many ways to 'pay' it... For everything there is a compensation, a balancing out of the equation.

Even some Hermetic Works (such as the Kybalion) clearly state that.

“So you think that money is the root of all evil? [...] 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?”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Unlike socialism which is full of moochers and capitalism which is full of thieves. In the quote above is, IMO, a very good definition of a truly free market. The free market has nothing to do with capitalism... the free market began 100 000 years ago when a half-ape half-man traded a rock for a banana.

Also I think many people get confused with what money is... I look at it as toilet paper. Something you need, and when it runs out you get some more. And if for some reason there is no toilet paper you can always find other things that can be used in its place.

I don't connect materialistic dreams with money. If you spend all the money you have on materialism you are a materialist, but you can also spend all your money on experiences; travel, great food, sex, drugs, music and any tool you need to create something... a tool is not materialistic I don't think.

I view money as representative of energy. We are all each others' servants.

Thanks for posting this. Very thought provoking.

they say "another day, another dollar"
I say "another slave, another collar"

Atlas Shrugged - The Money Speech (complete):



Alternatively, try living without trading/exchanging value for value.

I heard of a documentary about a woman who 'lived' for a year without money. I started watching it and it turns out she survived on OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY...

Trade/exchange of value is older than money.

Even more alternatively, imagine a world TODAY where supply of all needs is free. How would it affect society, creativity, innovation, etc?

And if this supply is not unlimited, who decides who needs what?

Also, if 'money' (or any other means of value exchange) is in any way perceived as corrupted by this or that standard, I think it's people who 'corrupt' money and not the other way around. Just like guns, sort of... Guns don't kill people. People kill people.