Money is the Root of Good - Essay Example

Money is the Root of Good Introduction Money is any commodity that is acceptable in a transaction. It is should be divisible and portable in order to make business easy and fast. In ancient time, barter trade was the main mode of transactions. Business was conducted in form of barter trade. The parties involved had to have mutual needs. It also depended upon common agreement on quality and quantity. This form of business was hectic and didn’t always guarantee the desired results. Consequently, currency form of money was invented to cater for the need of divisibility and portability. Money has undergone many changes over the years. Ancient people graduated from Barter trade to using precious metal coins as their form of money. Gold, silver, bronze among other metals served as money in the olden days. Today, money is accepted as physical currency made of paper and coins. The growing technology has also introduced an acceptable business platform that involves online trade where currency is rarely used. These transformations aim at making exchange of goods and services easy. Even though there are various evils associated with money, money’s goodness outweighs its associated evils, thus money is the root of good stands. Money is the root of good In the ancient world when money had not been introduced, traders used to engage in barter trade whereby goods were exchange for goods based on mutually inverse needs. It was difficult to agree on the value of goods to be exchanged due to quantity and quality differences. Traders needed to come up with a material that would be used to stop the direct exchange of goods. Money stepped in to determine the value of various goods. Moreover, it was widely accepted. It is divisible and trade has been easy since its introduction in the markets (Wollenberg para 1). Money is any acceptable material of exchange in a transaction. In a hypothetical situation, absence of money would mean that there wouldn’t be any platform to conduct trade. People would acquire goods from others by forceful means. Money has enabled trade thus it is good (Wollengerg para 2). Anything used rightfully and fairly is good. This includes money and general wealth. Wollenberg tells of a story of a poor man whose generosity elevated his financial status in the community but once he became rich, selfishness stepped in. Shannon Christman, in her article “why money is not the root of all evil” argues that its not money that causes evil but the love for money. Christman suggests that if money was the root off all evil, then religious people would be striving hard to be as broke as possible. In addition, only people with money would be evil, with the richest being the most evil. This is not true; some of the richest people in the world have been known to live the noblest lives. The greed for money may cause people to engage in various evil sprees but so does other vices like lust for supremacy. Not all evils are based on money (Christman para 3). Money brings ambition in people who want to posses it. Many critics misinterpret ambition as greed for money. It is true that there is a thin line between being over ambitious to get money and greed for money but one should be very careful not to mistake one for the other. Money critics fail to understand the aspect of ambition which assures the parties involved a factual growth in their business and financial success. Money acts as a goal that individuals work towards achieving hence money in itself is a motivating factor (Christman para 4). When arguing out how money is the root of all evil, debaters fail to recognize the good charity work that money is channeled into. Money can be used for a good course in the society that will promote development and the well being of the society. Once people stop focusing on the alleged evils of money, they will see how money has been used to change the lives of poverty stricken nations. Money is used to feed them, to build facilities for them and to generally transform theirs lives. Money used for the right purpose is not evil at all (Wollenberg para 3). Lack of money is the root of all evil. Criminals engage in crime not because they possess evil money, but because they don’t have money. Crime is an individual’s choice of action to acquire easy money but that does not brand money evil. It is wrong to assume that all crime is based on money since people also engage in crime to gain other material things. Money is not evil, it is the quest for it that is sometimes wicked and this is solely due to the individual’s morals and values (Langstaff para 2). Many people argue that people with a lot of money keep getting richer and richer while the poor people’s monetary state keeps deteriorating. What the debaters fail to ask themselves is why the trend is as it is. Kiyosaki and Lechter, in their book “rich dad, poor dad”, say that the hunger for success is different in different individuals and that’s why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. In addition, they suggest that letting money work for you and not actually working for money helps one get richer. There is no suggestion anywhere that money is evil. One’s hard work sets the bar and there is no need to limit one’s goals owing to unfair criticism (Koyisaki & Lechter 28). Money portrays the value of efforts. It is the reward gained after inputting hard work into a viable course. People engage in different positive errands hence making money that in turn helps in building nations. The very same people who criticize money enjoy its fruits with a smile on their face. Ironically, some even get paid to criticize money. If money was evil, then nobody would accept it as payment for his/her labor (Christman para 2). Nothing can solely be the root of all evil. Evil in itself is a relative word. There are many forms of evil and not all are traced back to money. Think of a rapist for instance, who insults someone and runs away. His/her motive is to get sexual satisfaction by force hence the evil act has nothing to do with money. Using the same example, the rape victim would report the incident to the relevant authority that would in turn embark on a mission to capture the rapist and bring him to justice. In order for the whole process to work, money and resources have to be used. Evidently, money is the root of good in this case (Wollenberg para 4). It is perplexing that majority of the people who claim nothing good can be associated with money are the same people frustrated in their quest for money. It is difficult for one to have something positive to preach about money especially when their quest for it has failed. It is like the proverbial hare, who after failing to reach for mangoes in the tree, he called the mangoes sour and unripe. Their arguments are therefore, based on emotional frustrations and not facts (Wollenberg para 5). Money is the root of all evil It has been argued that the love for money attracts greed in people and nations at large. Once they start making money, people rarely get satisfied, they want more and more and their focus is tilted towards greed. Some folks will do anything for money, even engaging in inhuman practices to get whatever they need. In the past, nations would colonize other nations just to steal their resources and increase their individual wealth. Wealth has been the most eminent form of division in the world. Poor nations and its people fall on the mercies of rich and developed nations while in essence some of the richest nations get their wealth from exploiting the poor nations. Accusation of wealth has blinded the corporate sectors worldwide leading to competition. In recent days such competition almost crashed the world’s financial equilibrium (Feschuk 1). Money and wealth has been known to ruin families. When greed engulfs a family, the consequences are dire. When accusation of wealth becomes more important to one of the partners in marriage for instance, they loose touch with their partner intimately and their happiness goes down the drain. Most divorce cases today are due to wealth issues. Marriages have been reduced to business partnerships instead of the intended reason of happiness and love. Children are the most affected by the craze of wealth accusation their parents engage in because parents even lack the time to bond with their children. In some cases, inheritance of money and wealth has turned out ugly in families whereby it triggers fights and unnecessary debates among family members (Feschuk 2). Money has brought the existence of classes in the society. There is the lower class, which consists of the poor members of the society. The middle class consists of financially stable members of the society while the upper class is comprised of rich individuals who literally rule the society. This inequality that money has brought to the society is displeasing to many people. The poor people are oppressed by the wealthy on a daily basis. People with money enjoy luxurious lives and turn the peasants to mare servants (Feschuk 3). The rise in crime has a simple clear basis which is money. Poor people lack access to education due to its high cost. They end up jobless in the streets. These same people must find a way to get their daily bread and since they are intellectually disabled, most of them turn to crime as their source of income. Hijackers, pickpockets, burglars and conmen characterize this bracket of people. These questionable arguments suggest that if education was free and not monetary valued, these people would not be in the streets terrorizing others (Dachis 1). Money has also created demigods in the society. People with riches are literally feared and worshipped by the less fortunate in the society. In the political scene, only those with money reign. People tend to take side with the wealthiest personalities whether they agree with their policies or not. Everyone wants to take the side where money is plenty. This has ruined many nations and the communities that choose wealthy leaders regardless of their proficiency (Feschuk 4). The above arguments hold water on some grounds but literally, money cannot be the root of all evil. Given a closer look, money’s good side outweighs its alleged evil. People should reason out with facts at hand rather than judge blindly. These people should ask themselves what the world would be like without money. There would be no trade and if one wanted something from another person, they would literally have to steal it. Money has simply provided an easy platform for business but humans’ vices have caused the platform to be full of evil. Money is definitely not the source of all evil instead lack of money is (Langstaff para 3). Conclusion Money is any acceptable object that is exchanged during a transaction. Whether it causes or attracts evil would all depend on an individual’s point of view. Many people have been raised to believe that money is the source of all evil. This misconception is preached worldwide and little effort is employed to clarify it. People have been brainwashed and they have believed that money has everything to do with all the evil in the world. Upon deeper scrutiny on the issue, one would be able to deduce that money does more good than harm to the society. It is the lack of money and not money itself that triggers evil deeds in the society. The lack of money motivates people to engage in bad habits that make people misjudge money. Money is clearly the root of good. Works cited Christman, Shannon. Why Money Is Not the Root of All Evil. Saving Advice. 2007. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Dachis, Adam. Is Money the Root of All Evil? Lifehacker 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Feschuk, Scott. Money Is The Root Of All Evil. Better Let Me Have It. Maclean's 120.12 (2007): 71. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Langstaff, Margaret. The Root Of All Evil--Lack Of Money. Publishers Weekly 247.49 (2000): 39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Kiyosaki, Robert & Lechter, Sharon. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Warner Business Books, 2000. Print. Wollenberg, Mordechai. Money Is Not the Root of All Evil! Chabad. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Read More