I think it would be a much more accurate statement to say that the root of most evil is man’s desire for status; either greed to increase one’s status, or jealousy over losing in the status game to others. Money is the most obvious measure of one’s status, so it’s easy to confuse the two, but they are certainly not the same thing at all. Money is just one way of keeping score. Blaming money for evil is like blaming the scoreboard for the baseball game.
Idealists wonder why we can’t live in a world where everyone is equal, and therefore where there is no greed or jealousy resulting from status differences. Unfortunately, they overlook the fact that our desire to have higher status than others is part of our human nature, and nothing can change it. The goal of communism was that an economic system would be created where no one would be rich or poor, where everyone would have equal wealth. The problem is that such a system is impossible. Man’s desire to rise ahead of others is too strong, and money is not the only thing that man competes over. And because all men are not equal in ability and other characteristics, no matter what the playing field is, some will rise ahead and others will fall behind, and those who are behind will feel intense jealousy, even if the competition is about something other than money.
One might even say that communism itself is a great evil, and the root of communism is jealousy on the part of its adherents that others have more money than they do.
Desire for money, or greed for money if you prefer to use stronger language (reminiscent of a scene from the movie Wall Street), is a good thing when people play by the rules, and when their desire for money and status results in better ways of doing business and in inventions that help people and that make the world a better place. Desire for money and status is only bad when people do bad things in order to obtain what they desire. And even then, it’s not “greed” that’s really bad, but the person who’s doing the bad things who’s bad.
The goal of a just government should not be to punish people for being successful in obtaining money, but to create rules to ensure that competition for money results in good for society.
All of which I may add is all out of the window...
What you describe above occurs in all situations when greed and hunger for power outweighs purpose. You are correct in that we will never all be equal in ability, skill, drive...but what we lose in the chase is the ability we each have to impact change and give a hand. In our lifetime, we will each be the underdog in some situation. If we would remember to look outward to the needs of others and not always inward to our own selfish needs, we could each do a little to remove barriers and not have such the deviation from the center.
ReplyDeleteMy earlier comments regarding need for balance fit here as well -- balance of want / need, balance of knowledge and wisdom to enter the game and begin the path of use vs. need vs. want. It would make all of our lives a little more aligned if things didn't get so far off track when we simply consider want...status and power steadily drive and we get further off track.