J
Jozefo
Guest
I chose this passage because I think it quite handily encapsulates the problem with money. It acknowledges the reality that a man comes into the world with nothing, and subsequently leaves this world in the same condition. It teaches that we should be content to have food and clothing (I think shelter is also implied), and spend our time pursuing happiness.
It also illustrates how the desire for money is a snare; that chasing evermore after money causes people to ignore the profitable pursuit of virtue, and entangles them in many sorrows, ultimately drowning them in perdition. According to Paul, the pursuit of money then - in God’s economy - is unprofitable, even destructive.
Yet society cannot survive or advance without money. If society is a body of people, then money is the blood in the body. It carries much needed resources to every member, circulating among them, exchanging work for sustenance, the work product in turn going to another member, that it too might exchange services for sustenance and enjoy the pursuit of happiness.
So we see that money itself is not evil, and is in fact a blessing. For without money, we are left with a more difficult situation. Bartering goods and services without a medium of exchange relies on members needing a profitable exchange at the very same time. If party A has corn, and party B has shoes, in order for an exchange to occur, party A must need shoes and party B must need corn, both at the same time.
Money solves this problem by allowing people to store the value of their work in something that everyone agrees to accept as valuable. Many are the different forms of money that have been invented. But whatever form money has taken, it’s chief purpose has always been to enable people to have a more efficient medium of exchange, in order that value might circulate freely in the community, efficiently, thus making it easier for people to acquire the things they need.
It comes as no surprise then, that some people have sought to use money as a means of gaining power and control over others in society. By making money scarce in an economy, it is possible to bring people into varying degrees of poverty, leaving them less able to pursue their happiness. The more scarce money is, the more people need to rely on their own efforts and barter. The less scarce money is, the more people can multiply their efforts, and raise their standard of living.
In modern times, a system of money creation has been invented that addresses the problem of scarcity: fractional reserve banking. Supposedly, this system addresses the problem of some people manipulating the money supply in order to gain power in society. It allows for money to be created in excess of the value in an economy at a given time, thereby avoiding the problem of scarcity. The belief is that the money supply can be managed in such a way, so as to empower people to acquire money when otherwise it would not be available.
Now rather than go into all of the various internal mechanisms that make this possible, instead I want to illustrate the chief means of how this is done, and how it feeds the love of money, and deceives people into falling into the snare of destruction.
The chief means of managing scarcity is the issue of credit. Credit is not money. Credit is the provision of money, goods, or services with the expectation of future payment. So if a person needs money for whatever reason, he can go to a bank and apply for a loan. If he is deemed credit worty, credit is extended to him, and he receives the money he needs.
Here is where I think the present money system insidiously traps people. Everyone sees the danger of debt, but how many see that an entire economy’s money supply - being based on credit - leaves people without any option but to continually seek money, taking them away from their pursuit of happiness as defined by Paul?