What I would like to investigate is the biblical idea of the love of money being the root of evil, and not money itself. I was led to think about this idea due to a seminar regarding utopia where many of my peers seemed very opposed to the idea of money in a hypothetical utopia. They saw money as a source of greed and a generally negative addition to society. I was uncertain of such a principle since currency is so prevalent in modern society and, as I see it, has numerous benefits. 

Firstly, I’d like to outline the potential goods that I see coming from the existence of currency. The most obvious and oldest benefit of currency is a stable, non-perishable, standardized store of value. This is in contrast to the old barter system which relied on direct trading of goods that had no easily defined value and were often perishable. For example, it’d be a little difficult to determine the price of a goat in terms of apples and it’s hard to trade apples due to their limited shelf life. So, currency makes daily trade simpler and efficient, but the aforementioned improvements also facilitate long-distance/global trade. It would be a logistical nightmare to even attempt any sort of foreign trade with a barter system. But, I think the most modern benefit currency has given society is banking and investment. Currency has allowed for the birth of a financial sector that is more suited than anything else to create economic growth. A stable and consistent loan system creates countless opportunities in a society that ultimately lead to huge economic growth. Take the Netherlands for example, a few hundred years ago it was one of Europe’s most powerful nations even though it had few natural resources and little territory, but it was bolstered by a sophisticated financial sector. 

So, at least from my perspective, currency and money have significant benefits and have the potential for a lot of good in society. However, we are right in being suspicious of money and its potential for harm. There is a point where money is harmful. Take monopolies for example, they destroy opportunities for business in their industry and harm consumers in pursuit of more money. So in greed-motivated cases, money definitely has adverse effects.

So, money has allowed society to do things it has never done before. It has allowed for great economic growth and easy trade, but also created the environment for excessive greed and selfishness. My assessment would be that it is way overkill to destroy the whole institution because of some bad nuts. On the whole, money has created significant growth and though there are cases of greed and selfishness creating downsides, it’s been a useful institution and should be kept.

_{Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash}