We think about money all wrong.
We imagine ourselves collectors instead of stewards. We forget the temporary nature of goods - and their ultimate destination.
Times were simpler before money existed. In the middle time between an every-man-for-himself society and today. In this space, the barter economy existed.
In this middle space, production efficiencies yielded excess that others could benefit from. And this benefit was mutually shareable between everyone who produced usable excesses.
But our current nature is one of selfishness - a self-centered concern for one’s own good over another. And so man constantly sought out arbitrage - unbalanced trade in favor of himself. So laws were introduced to prevent abuse.
But it was never meant to be this way.
When work is performed in a society that encourages specialization, a trust between the specialists develops such that they can rely on each other to supply needs that are sacrificed for the sake of the specialty.
But just as in the barter system, efficiencies yield excess supply of one’s own labor - so does now money stand in that same place as those excesses.
In those excesses in the barter system are mans own sweat, blood, lessons - his very self. And so it is with money, which has become for a practical expedient for the gift of one’s self.
But we are not meant to store our gift. We are meant to share it, to steward it, to employ it for the benefit of society and the common good.
An obsessive compiling of money is dangerous because it turns man in on himself and away from others - something very un-human and un-manly.
If we are to redefine our relationship with each other, the economy, with money, we should take time understanding what money is.
Money is stored gift. It is a practical expedient of the self.