Saturday 3 September 2011

Why do people want money?

Money is a concept that never ceases to fascinate me. More specifically the question why do people want money?

Essentially money is worthless, it's just paper and metal and for some reason it has this great worth to us that not only causes a want but a NEED to be in possession of it. I think the topic fascinates me so much as I personally experience the power which money has over me. I would like to think this is common and not just because I am a weak human being, yet I cannot seem to understand how it is possible for an inanimate object to have power.

Power, another interesting subject of which I'm sure I'll address as a later date. Perhaps it is not the inanimate object itself that has power but rather that it is a symptom of being powerful. The more power you have the more money you have. Or a cause of being powerful. The more money you have the more powerful you will become. No matter how you argue it there is a constant link between money and power which makes you question is the want, which nowadays for many people can be deemed an obsession, for money or for power?

Maybe I entitled this blog post with the wrong question and I should be asking what is it that money does for us or enables us to do that makes us want it? If money is simply an inanimate object then it cannot do anything so it must be what it enables us to do that causes our want for it. Some would say money allows us to do more, have more, be more, but, to use a phrase I'm sure will appear frequently in this blog, there is a fine line between liberation and limitation. So fine that it depends on the view of the individual.

I think i should explain that concept before I continue... a metaphor is in order, I apologise in advance for the excitement i get over using 'technical English'. The metaphor:
When a child grows up and learns to feed themselves or dress themselves or use the toilet, to the people around the child this is surely seen as a minor liberation for the child... but. The child's life now has added complications and responsibilities which subtract from the carefree nature of being a child and in that way the child becomes limited. I hope that's a little clearer now.

Back to the point of the post. If I asked you what you used your money for I expect your answer would be 'stuff' or some variation thereof. Is money worthless unless we spend it or use it? So is it really that people want, need, and are obsessed with money OR is that people want, need, and are obsessed with stuff?

1 comment:

  1. power of money is what money can buy.......if you have material aspirations you need to respect money and know the language it has created in the world.
    the language which even a deaf can understand and a mute can speak..............nice article though.

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