Is the love of money the root of all evil?

I apologize that this is a little long, but I needed a lot of words to get my point across.

Here’s a quote…

”they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

That’s where I first heard the idea – The Holy Bible, in 1 Timothy 6: 9-10… that money, or specifically the love of money, is the source of all evil.

As I sit writing this today it is an idea that seems axiomatic. But, since the word “axiomatic” connotes “unquestionable”, let’s question it a little bit.

There is a discussion that is ongoing in the United States right now about income and income tax equity; about the unfairness that has been built into our system that favors the rich and penalizes the working class. And underneath the discussion, there is a question worth asking that is being begged – Why should money that is earned (for instance) from the investments made by a “blind trust” be taxed at a far lesser rate than money that is (for instance) earned by someone who empties bedpans and cares for the aged for a living at a nursing home?

It is oversimplified to say that the reason for the intractability of these problems is the avarice of the “haves”, but although that may not be the entire truth, I say it is the greater part of it.

The rotten, corrupt and crazy worship of wealth affects every part of our society, and I’ll try to illustrate a few ways this is true.

When Shaquille O’Neal began his professional basketball career and received what at the time was one of the most lucrative contracts ever, I had an argument with a fellow soldier I was serving with in San Antonio at the time. I had recently met “the Big Aristotle”, and I was arguing that the young man would ultimately profit as a person more if he completed his education first. I frankly found him to be an alarmingly shallow individual, and I was trying to make the case that there would be more real value for him in the long run in becoming comfortable with reading a book than in driving a gold plated SUV. My opponent made a comment I have never forgotten:
“He don’t need to read – he can hire people to read to him (insert scoffing chortle here)!”

I have sat in the pews of a church and listened to a pastor preach the “gospel of prosperity” which seems to me to basically be that gain equals godliness. I’ll never forget one sermon in which the pastor made the case that if you are content for example, with driving a “Rent-a-Wreck” car, then your father in heaven would not reserve the best mansions in heaven for you.
Get this clear, because I’m not making this up. The pastor was making the blatant statement that there are better and worse neighborhoods in heaven, according to what level of wealth you were able to accumulate here on earth (There was a case consequently made that you could of course increase your chances of gaining wealth by giving to the church in the correct apportions, but that’s a separate abominable meme from what I’m discussing here).

It took seven years for our government to pass legislation that allowed the people who were injured because they rushed into the burning and crumbling buildings of the World Trade Center to receive special financial aid for their health care. That is unfair on the face of it, to the point of insanity.

Because our Supreme Court ruled relatively recently that money can be construed as free speech, and that corporations can be construed as people, our politicians can simply be bought more openly than ever, and we can’t even know who is buying who.

I have participated in and seen several discussions over the years in which one side will defend a morally questionable person on the basis of their wealth. The discussions go something like this: First person - “So and so is bad and does questionable things, and is perpetuating an evil practice! Second person – “Well they are sure making a lot of money at it so they must be doing something right!” (???) Whether we’re talking about gangsters or entertainers or politicians or ministers, it makes me shake my head, dumbfounded.

It’s no revelation to anyone who has talked to me that I’m an unapologetically liberal-leaning person in my social and fiscal views. There is an old, snarky saying that a conservative is just a liberal that has been mugged.

Well, I’ve been mugged, but I will never understand the upside down thinking that seems to characterize those who think it’s okay and even desirable not only to not raise taxes on the rich, but even to decrease their tax burden in favor of the great benefit that will do the rest of us. About 400 individual rich people now have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. That’s 400 people that have more than 155 billion people.

Speak your mind, true believers. Is love of money at the root of all the evil in the world? Is the inequity in our economic system a hideously unfair situation that needs correction, or simply the way healthy capitalism works? Do we as a people hold too much value in the owning of wealth? Wha’dya think?