Money for the lack of a better word is good...

If you have seen the Michael Douglas movie "Wall Street", you probably remember the dialog, 'Greed, gentlemen, for the lack of a better word is good". Well, I won't go that far. But I would certainly say this, "Money for the lack of a better word is good".

Since ages, money has been termed as root of all evils. People think making money is sin, rich people are termed as robbers. While there are some rotten mangoes in the basket, we should not have collective justice. After all money does have its good points.

Money offers us fair and uniform way to exchange goods, talent, assets etc. etc. We can quantify our salaries, our homes, our education costs in terms of money. That way money avoids exploitation as people can negotiate a fair price for all.

But that is not all. When a society followed a certain way of life that prevented people from earning money the right way or told people that they do not need money and the state would give everything to them it went down the drain. Productivity decreased as a whole as there was no incentive and hence no creativity. Also just because the earning capacity of people went down, it did not imply that their needs also mitigated. So this situation gave rise to corruption, as the society had few people with much more power and authority but very less earned income. So they took advantage of the poorer, weaker section of the society and the concept of individual sacrifice for all came into being. Not only that; but for the benefit of these few people who claimed to be the patrons of social equality it was necessary that the poor always remain poor. Because if there are no poor people in the society, who will they instigate against the rich.

On the other hand, when people are allowed to earn money for their efforts and work, society prevails and not only it prevails it progresses. As the old saying goes, Money begets money. So when you start making money in a fair way and you know the potential if offers for your growth and success, you want to make more money. That makes you invest it and that means that someone is getting a job and a better opportunity for their own progress.

So while I agree that we should have balance in life and should not be greedy, I think money gives us a better opportunity to grow, as a person, as a society and has the potential to make us happy. After all money is only means to an end and not an end in itself.