Is money good or bad?

EarlofBug · Post by **EarlofBug** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 00:25

Do you think that money is good or bad? How does it affects humanity and the world?
Should there be such big gaps between people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Zuckerberg to the rest, while there are people in Africa, Burundi, Eritrea, Mozambique, that scrap for food? Should wealth be distributed more equally?

EarlofBug · Post by **EarlofBug** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 00:27

Can football survive if there would be no money at all in the world?

Lorric · Post by **Lorric** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 01:24

I wonder if perhaps I sparked this kind of thought after I savaged Imagine in the Olympics thread.

I'd say good. Unfettered capitalism is bad, but money makes the World go round. The likes of Gates and Bezos were given their money by people like you and me for providing a useful service to us.

EarlofBug · Post by **EarlofBug** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 02:03

Lorric wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 01:24 The likes of Gates and Bezos were given their money by people like you and me for providing a useful service to us.

I don't know how much 'usefull' is the service provided to us by the likes of Bezos (I never ordered from amazon) or Zuckerberg, especially compared to people who grow food or to teachers for example.

rpo.castro · Post by **rpo.castro** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:27

Money is money, its just a thing like any other, just an instrument. If you didn't have money you would have other thing to simbolize wealth. It could be salt, silver, gold, properties, slaves, women.
People will always want power and will always want more. So don't blame on money, blame on human condition.

bbi · Post by **bbi** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 13:31

Money is essential to civilization. With out money it would have been almost impossible get the advances in technology, connecting the world and exchanging information/progress . I really like the explanations Yuval Noah Harari gives in Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind about the evolution of society and the importance of money and the concepts of credit, the importance of technological progress.

For an economical perspective I think I am more inclined to the left, I would accept paying higher taxes to make the whole of society is protected in case of some misfortune. On the other hand living in a country like Romania with political leaders of low quality does make want the "state" to intervene in the real economy as less as possible, put some protection for the citizens, but then let the free market handle it self.

In truth most people want to over simplify things. It's always is capitalism good or bad, is socialism good or bad. always the binary system is it black or white. reality is never like this. Every system has some disadvantages and after some time there will be people that will take advantages of it. Even the most die hard fan of "free market" could accept that there are moments when the state should intervene. The "free market" is great for innovation which will benefit the whole of society even if it will make some "outrages" billionaires. But in a free market a huge monopoly or cartel can become so strong that in essence there won't be a real free market and all, and innovation will stop same as the benefits for society, the only reason for the market is to create money for a few select persons. This is the moment the state needs to intervene and break up and reinstate a real "free market".

So as bottom line I think there is no perfect system. You need to constantly adapt to the current situation. Sometimes go to the left from an economical stance than to the right. Depends of the current state of business. And obviously everybody will have a different opinion of assessing the current states of affairs, that's why I would use small steps and evaluate the effects to avoid yo-yo effect when switching from one spectrum to the other.

bbi · Post by **bbi** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 13:42

EarlofBug wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 00:25 Should there be such big gaps between people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Zuckerberg to the rest, while there are people in Africa, Burundi, Eritrea, Mozambique, that scrap for food? Should wealth be distributed more equally?

I think this is a false question, just like asking if is it fair for a footballer to earn a couple million dollars and a doctor much less. as long as they earned their money legally good for them. I don't even care how the they spend it as long as they don't spend it to actively destroy competition/innovation.

As I said before the world is changing constantly so maybe there are some people that took advantage of the old system and with the current globalization there are some companies that might not pay a fair amount of taxes because they became so rich they can hire people to use all the loopholes to avoid paying almost any taxes. So yes maybe some of these guys need to taxed more because the current taxation system was not developed when we had the same level of technology like now.

krdel · Post by **krdel** » Wed Jul 28, 2021 13:20

It is bad. As Aristotle said money can be used in economics or in chrematistics, but he did not see that you cannot have one without another. A society using money will always necessary produce chrematistics, you cannot prevent that (UEFA is the best example LOL). And when the money is used in the money-commodity-money process, commodity form reigns over the people. Then you get those huge differences, exploitation, alienation etc.

EarlofBug · Post by **EarlofBug** » Fri Jul 30, 2021 20:04

So money may not be the problem, but the huge gaps between the rich anc the poor, which gives power and control to some people over most others.

levski_ole · Post by **levski_ole** » Fri Jul 30, 2021 23:05

Yikes, I don't venture in this part of the forum section, and now I know why. Last time I got offended by people complaining about amorphous terms like "racism", and now they are openly promoting communism. I think I will stick with the football section.

Polak · Post by **Polak** » Mon Aug 16, 2021 18:49

Lorric wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 01:24 I'd say good. Unfettered capitalism is bad, but money makes the World go round.

I'd say love makes the World go round.

As for money, I don't think it in itself is bad, but sadly it is the cause of a lot of evil.

Kjello · Post by **Kjello** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 01:20

Money is a core element to the human civilisation. Money in some sort have been used for more than 30 000 years. The world would not evolve in any sence without money.

Capitalism has its problems. But it's still the by far best performing system we know. However, a more globalised world have shown that we need better global systems and structures to fight powerty, inequality and corruption. Because yes, it is a problem that a small group of people control such wast amounts of wealth. Tax havens and tax evasions cost trillions every year.

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