Money - The Root of All Evil?

[savio13]

"Money is the root of all evil."

You have heard this a many times. But do you believe this? Is it really the root cause of evil..The money that we use or spend in our daily lives can be used in different ways for different purposes..

The way we use and for what purpose also defines whether it is useful or it used in the right manner.. But often it is seen that money in excess is used for a lot of unwanted things and pleasures..Some might say that it not wastage but they are using their money to get what they want.

Yes, of course we work to earn money to satisfy our needs, wants and desires but we also learn to save which we don't do. We often want it now cause we think it is now or never.Life is short. Make it large.

Money in itself is worthless. It is only because society has determined to use money (rather than say barter) as the means of exchange, that gives it any worth. It is value neutral, it is nether good or evil. It is only what is done with the money, or the reason it is accumulated that determines whether it is good, bad or evil. The drug dealer of our earlier example does not accumulate money for the sake of money, it is for the house, the car, or perhaps the status that the dealer accumulates wealth. But again it is not just the accumulation of material possessions that makes it evil, it is the way that it has been done, the means to the end. The drug dealer has caused untold harm on the way to accumulating it. Other people have suffered for the sake of the dealer being able accumulate these goods for the satisfaction of personal desires, desires gained to the detriment of others. So the root cause of the evil behind drug dealing is not money (which is merely a means or a tool used to gain material goods for the satisfaction of desire) but selfishness.

One of the consequences of this definition is that some monstrous acts by people may not be defined as evil because of the mental state of the perpetrator, just as say death of people in acts of nature, while tragic, could not be thought of as evil due to the lack of conscious intention.

Selfishness then is the trait in the human character which gives us the potential for evil. However evil is only perpetrated when we are conscious of the selfishness of an act and its harmful consequences on others but we proceed anyway.