Money is not evil. Having money is not wrong. Spending money is not wrong.
Steve Olson has a great post about Why People Believe Money is the Root of all Evil – both Steve Olson and Steve Pavlina take that one step further and explain why if you think money is evil you will never have any. Steve Olson’s post has a great list of things he grew up hearing that implied having money was bad. Here’s the ones on his list that I also heard a lot:
- He’s filthy rich
- That house is a waste of space, can you imagine the heat bill
- Whadda ya think money grows on trees
- He’s got money to burn
- How much money does a person need?
All of those are negative comments and imply that having money is evil, but money enables you to do things. It’s very hard to save the world or even yourself if you don’t have any money.
So, earn the money, make sure it doesn’t ruin you, use it wisely and accomplish your goals. You can use money to find a cure for autism or to hang out on the beach for the rest of your life or make sure everybody in your town makes it to college. Without money any of those will be hard to accomplish. It’s even easier to stay in shape, eat healthy and live a longer life if you have money.
Passing on having money won’t make you a better person, it will just give you one less tool to accomplish what you’d like to do in life.
Photo by Big-E-Mr-G.
Hi, Stormy,
I think a more important issue than ‘whether money makes you a better or a worse person’ is the issue of ‘income inequality and its ramifications on a society as well as individuals in that society.’
Today, NPR launched a seven-part series, exploring ‘the human side of income inequality in the United States.’ It should be interesting.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7180618
Mom
Thanks for the pointer! I will listen to them.
I agree that income inequality is a very serious problem – separate from that of how people feel about money.
I don’t have the exact stat but over the last 10 years or so the top wealthiest 20% of Americans got much wealthier and the bottom 20% got poorer. Relatively speaking. We are actually all pretty wealthy compared to our great grandparents or developing nations. Unfortunately what makes you feel wealthy is having the same or more money than your neighbors. So even if you have two nice cars, a nice house and a boat if your neighbor has nicer cars, a bigger house and a faster boat, you won’t feel wealthy!
I would have to say I disagree and agree with the post. I believe the subject of the quote is not money, but evil. The author of the quote is saying that all evil is caused by or directly related to money, not that all money is evil. It is in the same manner that you could say all war is caused by disagreement, but not all disagreement causes war. That’s just what I got from the post.
I would have to say I disagree and agree with the post. I believe the subject of the quote is not money, but evil. The author of the quote is saying that all evil is caused by or directly related to money, not that all money is evil. It is in the same manner that you could say all war is caused by disagreement, but not all disagreement causes war. That’s just what I got from the post.