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It's often true that the truth of a sentiment or platitude isn't shown in its prevalence in talk shows, newspapers and broadcasts, or on the Infallible Internet. The truthfulness of any given "factoid" must, if shown true, have a long history behind it. For too long now-generations long, in fact-we've heard that today's younger generations are becoming less worldly and more obsessed personal gain, notably with that mighty monument to Mammon, the Dollar. And for just as long it's been held true by members of every facet of society, to different degrees and in different ways.

The suffering coal miner and over-worked surgeon will both agree that money is nothing to fritter away one's life for, and even such things can be heard from the most devoted big business advocate. And yet our coal miner is desperate for the thing of which he's wary, and our two other (much more) well-off friends have no problem spending the ample cash growing moldy in their pockets. Thus it remains that, despite the insistence of nearly everyone-again, at some time and to some degree-that the ultimate goal in life is not just to acquire capital, we see everyone acting quite differently.

What makes this paradox so interesting is that it's multi-layered: first, it's been a large part of our social debate for what seems like decades. From those idealistic times of the oft-romanticized '60s peaceniks on down through the cynical '90s environmental activists, different members of the political left have attempted to make a supreme evil of the dollar. Meanwhile, members of the right have argued that the restriction of markets have kept capital from greatly equalizing our stratified society through what was called by Reaganites the "magic of the marketplace."
Second, there is another paradox (which I won't really get into) that's closely tied to this one: it seems that there is no social ill that isn't in some way caused-and that can in some way be resolved-if only SOMEONE would redirect the flow of capital.

I haven't got the time here to really go into these to issues at length, though (I'll elaborate as best I can later, sorry); for now, let it suffice that everyone is in some degree or another right and wrong on this issue. I don't mean to sound like a relativist, here; there are some hard facts out there concerning this, if we would only take a look at them. But some of them just need more examination than some are willing to give them. The fact is, many social problems are caused by money, or the lack thereof: Hunger, homelessness, political tyranny, civil war, domestic and substance abuse, and so-on. It's also interesting to note that the reason reason we all in some way struggle morally with the acquisition of money, and feel the need to decry it in some ways, is because we must feel a strong, innate aversion to it. We don't like the idea that our society is founded on the idea that economic growth, in the form ever-expanding and evolving and devouring capitalist markets, is the sole decider of how our lives are run. And yet, for the last one hundred sixty years or so, many people around the world have said that this is so: that our society is founded solely on the principle of making as much money as possible, and that nothing affects our lives more that this fact.

This is a subject to which there are no easy answers; I myself came to my conclusions about capital and business and all after years of observing the world around me, and it's a process that never ends; no learning process in life ever should. That said, let's all try to keep our own thoughts on the subject constantly in mind, and realize that there is more to life than making fat cash-though we may still be looking for all of that.

Learn more about this author, Bigby James.
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