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?
When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?...
...But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality – the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.
Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants; money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?"
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Go HERE to read the whole of the "money" speech.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver."
A tool, yes, but it cannot take me wherever I wish, and it does indeed affect me as the driver.
A common example is a Friday night, when after a long week I might want to enjoy a fantastic sit-down meal with Grace at a nice restaurant. I just don't have the money though...so we settle for Chick-Fil-A. My money can't take me where I want to go, instead it takes me through the drive-thru.
Perhaps I'm being too literal in my translation.
Ayn Rand's answer would probably be something like: "If that's what you really want, then work harder, produce more, and make more money. Your settling for Chick-Fil-A is proof that you do not want a fantastic sit-down meal enough to earn it. And if you are unable to earn enough money to afford it, then you are unable to trade value for value, and you do not deserve the meal in the first place."
Although what I think Rand meant by that quote was that money is only a means to an end, and should not be taken as an end in itself.
If Amy Rand said that to me I'd become very depressed and feel like a worthless piece of shit.
Amy? Haha, but yeah, AYN Rand can be a bitch.
She won't sugar-coat anything. If you aren't logically consistent in your philosophy, and/or if your life isn't a mirror of your philosophy, she will hammer on you.
But if she did say that to you, instead of getting depressed, you should say that A)ability to produce is not the final arbiter of human worth. And B) what you do for a living is impossible to quantify in terms of monetary value. And I think Rand would be the first to agree with you that education is undervalued in modern society.
I agree with Kevin that she is saying "money is a means to an end", but you still have to have the ambition to accomplish whatever you want or buy whatever it is you desire. If you have enough money, it can take you wherever you wish.
This reminds me of our conversation that money is on the path to becoming theoretical - that one day we won't have cash. We will only have a number that is directly deposited into our checking account in lieu of a paycheck and our credit/debit cards will be the only means to tap into that account. Cash will not exist anymore, most likely for "security reasons".
Haha, I'm sure Amy and Ayn would both be bitches to me!
Adam- I'm already there. I have not had cash in my wallet for...probably since Christmas when I needed toll money and couldn't use my credit card. I love it, too.
Post a Comment