Dear All,
Danielle suggested our next blog topic, money - is it good or evil? She would like you to familiarize yourselves with the following two articles:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/1340 and
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/DoesMoneyMakeYouMean.aspx.
Please, do as you are usually asked to do. The deadline for this topic is next Friday, October 31.
Thanks, and take care,
Kinga
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14 comments:
I fully agree with the statement, "Money is the root of evil". If you look around, everyone in this world is just running for the money bills. Money has changed the thinking and the mentality of every person. Just imagine how the world would have been without money. I agree there will be no desire to work or to achieve something but nobody had to follow anything.
People make friends because of money. If you have alot of money you are the best person. Our success is measured on the basis of money. Nobody looks at the hard work, progress and abilities of the person. It is all judged by money. I he has money, he is hardworking, sincere, sweet and all the good qualities. many "successful people" have told me that to be successful to have to do something wrong and it is usually when you begin a business.
Money makes us think that we are immortals. It takes us away from spirituality and drags us into the materialistic world. But i would say "Money is a necessary evil." Everybody has to run for it. We have responsibilities towards our parents and towards ourselves. We cannot escape this vicious cycle.
I don't think that money is the root of evil or whatever, it is just the source we use in our actions and everyday life. Actually money cannot think or do anything by itself, the ones who do evil things or good deeds, by using money are we - people. Money is the base of everything: relations, economics, power, politics, etc. It is impossible for a society to exist without money as a main source. It is stupid to imagine a world without money, if there were no money, there would be something else, performing the same functions, but with a different name. It's a pity that some people forget about other values in our life like love, health, happiness, and put money before them. But money still is the most important commodity in our world.
In my opinion we shouldn't blame money in all world's problems. We should simply use them to create something beautiful, to make our friends happy, to be able to afford all appropriate things we want, to feed our families, to help the ones who need our help. Because by doing so, our soul will be clean and we will be self-satisfied by our actions. It is not true to have a goal to earn lots of money, and be happy with it. Of course money is very important, we need it everyday, but it is not what makes us happy. Sometimes with only one word or friendly look, we can make the world better. We should use money as a source for achieving goals, not forgetting that it is impossible to buy whatever you want, even if you are the richest man on this planet.
I remembered one Chinese proverb:
"You can buy a house, but not home,
You can buy watches, but not time,
You can buy a bed, but not calmness,
You can buy a book, but not knowledge,
You can buy a doctor, but not health,
You can buy status, but not respect,
You can buy blood, but not life,
You can buy sex, but not love..."
I think these are the words of a very wise man, and they answer all questions. Money are neither good nor evil. We can make the world better with money, and at the same time we can do it worse. All depends on us - humans.
Money is not good and evil, people are. Money is simply an invention like any other; the purpose of money is to allocate goods more efficiently.
There are a couple of flaws in the article. One, the article states that money has been since time. Wrong, before the Roman Empire most civilizations traded goods without the use of money; barter. Even after the Roman Empire, physical money did not subsist; it was not until the Renaissance that money really came to exist. Another flaw is that they quote the Bible as referring as money in one passage as something good and in the other as something bad. That is just the interpretation of the author; the Bible did not specifically refer to money in those passages. It may seem to refer to money, but it all depends on how anyone interprets those passages. And the third flaw in the article and this one really bothers me, is that he (the author) makes a lot of claims, and does not give examples, evidence or statistics to back him up. The whole article is written like this. Example:” People die from overeating and gluttony on rich democracies.” Maybe one out of one hundred million die from this in rich democracies, which is a retarded amount to take into consideration, not to mention it can also happen in poor democracies. Regardless of the statistic, he fails to show any evidence, or go in depth analysis of his claims. It seems his article is made to persuade the most oblivious people on this planet.
Anyway, the article in my opinion is retarded, when the author pointed out similarities of terrorists groups, to democracies, to fascist just because all three “groups” use money, is retarded. Everybody uses money; it is an invention, with the sole person of allocating goods more efficiently. Maybe an undiscovered indigenous tribe in the Amazons is the only group in the world that does not use money today. Does that mean they are not evil? Are they better than us? Pretty sure they fight over their scarce resources,just as we do.
I could not finish reading the article; I detected three wrongful claims, two false facts and a million flaws. Once I notice the author is making up stuff, I stop reading. It makes me angry when people write fake articles just to persuade people to radical ideas. People who do that take advantage of the less educated masses who believe most wrongful claims due to their lack of knowledge.
The only evil thing I was able to observe in the article was the author- a left wing liberal loony jew who takes advantage of ignorant people.
Money can be evil if it is not used appropriately and money is also essential for living a good life. Hence it can be termed as a necessary evil. Money should not control you; you should control money. It definitely is the very important in everyone's live in order to live in standard living conditions. But excessive money, other then normal living expenses should be managed appropriately. Instead of spending money on excessive luxuries, one should learn to save money for the future. Even parents should teach their children the value of money and how to save money. I personally think that people with a good income, should always set aside a percentage of it for donations or towards good cause that would benefit the society. Attaining money should not be our sole purpose in life, if it does, that's when money becomes evil.
I don't necessarily think of money as good or evil, just as a main goal in every persons' life that is well overrated. If we think about it, we are born into a family that has a financial history. We learn in our early years that money is a key factor of our lives, is protection, is the future, it's most important for a complete and "happy life". But the things some must do to obtain it, makes me wonder if it's really worth it. Whats the difference between a house with one TV than 4 TVs, or bathrooms or cars. It all comes down to over indulgence, power, and greediness.
Basically, we dedicate our entire life to gain money. We go to school to educate ourselves, so that we can obtain a suitable job and earn a living (money). Why has that become our "only" priority? It rules the globe, in all good and bad aspects. I don't think money is evil, it's just a bad influence to our every day life. When did money become so important and powerful? It's more important than love, family, honesty, peace and even health. If you don't have money, you basically don't have anything.
It's interesting to read about the point from Shorely Roe's article. I never thought that money influenced my personality much until I read about her opinion that one's view upon money would most likely depend on his/her side, poor or wealthy. Money has never been a problem for me and I didn't understand that why so many people are living in great stress to gain more money. I realized that the reason I don't understand people is that I don't live in the same circumstances as they do, and I has never been in a desperate demand of money.
Personally, I think money is neither good or evil. It's a natural human desire that to gain or to maintain one' property, and which is called greediness. Last weekend, I visited my friends apartment and we played "monopoly" . It surprised me that I desired to gain more coupons and got easily pissed because of that, I have never been that way with real money.
So overall, I think money don't change people, people do!
No one can deny the fact that money has become the most important thing in today's world. A person throughout his/her life tries to earn and save as much money as possible because money has become everything, it can buy anything right from comfort to luxury, from peace to love.
It is because of this unlimited importance of money that leads to many evils and crimes. One is never satisfied with the amount of money he/she has got. Everyone looks at someone who has got more than what he/she does and tries to reach that level or better.
Money can't be called evil as money provides us with everything required to lead a life. In India people even worship Lakshmi, the Goddess of the means to achieving objectives, including prosperity in the lives of mankind. Money makes everything possible, it fulfills our dreams, brings happiness and prosperity. It becomes evil when we resort to bad means in order to get it.
One must consider money as a means to achieve objectives, not making money as an objective.
It really makes you think when you're posed with that question. I have always been, I suppose you could say, fairly unlucky with money. And although I don’t consider money to be inherently good or bad, I don’t like idea that some people want more and more just to have it and be 'rich'. I know that when I complained about needing money and finding ways to get money, it was only to pay rent and bills, but it felt like I was being greedy. It’s probably more that capitalism is bad. Where people can have billions and billions or dollars or pounds through the exploitation of nature, of people in third world countries. And yet we talk about giving money to charities to help the poor. If the rich would just stop screwing people over it might not be so bad. People need money now days. It's just a shame it makes some people so greedy and nasty.
Money is necessary for living in a modern society. We can not tell whether it is the more the better or the less the better. We may make a comparison between money and oxygen. Everyone knows that oxygen is necessary. Scientists already improved that concentration higher or lower than normal will accelerate dying. Abruptly increase or decrease in great amount will lead to a quick death. Sometimes money does the same affect. People who find themselves became rich or penniless on next morning will find difficult to adjust themselves to a new lifestyle. Thus a heart attack or a suicide may occur. Money is neither good nor evil. We can’t blame rice because someone eats himself to death. When facing with money, people need self- control and a right comprehension of what does wealth means.
In itself, money is neither good nor bad, but how it is applied to each aspect associated with life on earth can and does alter the course of history.No matter what, people will proceed in the pursuit to obtain large amounts of money regardless of the consequences to their lives. They will continue
to compare their wealth to the allotment of others and idolize their fashion fabricating stars. Money is so nessessary, money can buy food, fame, power,and other things. No one can live without it just like oxygen. Why there is some discussion that money is good or evil? Because there is a gap between rich people and poor people. Poor people think rich people are greedy, they never stop to gaining money. So i think the question money is good or evil reflects the conflict between different levels in the society now. Once again, i think money itself is neither evil nor good. It is just made by paper, and are used as as a medium of exchange.
Beside the articles, I also read the comments of other classmates. Most of them said money itself is neither good nor evil, and I totally agree with this point. Money is just an invention which has been designed for currency of goods. However, depends on people’s behaviors and minds, these pieces of metal and paper can have characteristic such as good or evil. And people who lost their mind and become the slave of money give negative image on it.
Some ideologists say money is the source of evil, and human being should go back to the time before money was invented. However, we can’t simply go back to the prehistoric period, because money is byproduct of the civilization and people are too used to live with it over the thousands years; it is so comfortable to use. It is just as oxygen and water for the civilized people.
Instead of replacing or banishing the money, people should focus on how to spend the money in good way.
I think that money benefits us in many way. It created such things as profession, market, and value. Money itself is nor good or evil, because it is just a thing. Money in some extent, is the power that determines material welfare. There is nothing good or evil about having more power, but the problem is how people use that power. So the goodness of money comes from how it is used, which means that it would really depend on a person’s morality who uses money. Like I mentioned at the beginning, there are many benefits from having monetary system, it develops the society in more efficient way. The jobs for one person would consist of many trifle daily tasks, such as preparing food, making clothes, supplying whatever a person needed for oneself if we did not have monetary system. How people use their power, should not be intervened as long as there is justice.
This was the debate existing as long as money system is established. From my point of view, to some extent, he eager of money do cause some inappropriate behaviors of human beings. However, it is not money's responsibility of all evil, but the one who pursue it.
Historically, money is just the measurement of value, or wealth. It is designed as the tool in the property exchange,physical or otherwise between individuals. Money replace barter for it convenience, as well as other reason such as durable. So, from its origin, money has nothing to do with the "evil", it is just a tool like computers or books we use everyday. You may say that the contents in a book is evil, or the computer hike is evil, but you will never consider the computer or book itself as evil. So, with the same property, how can u judge money as evil anyway?
However, nowadays, money is considered as a sign or only measurement of wealth, or success. And the eager of money cause several inappropriate behaviors, such as graft and corruption. But it is the person who choose to do it that we should blame, not money.
First, we must admit that money is the basis of our life. We cannot say whether it is evil for money itself. As my point of view, what will make money become evil is human’s own appetency, and it is only for case of money. Poor people desire to be rich and rich people desire to become richer. So, it just depends on people’s behaviours and minds. So I think what we need to discuss is how to use/make money properly, and what is the right attitude toward money
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