Money is the root of all evil.

Thank you for accepting. I look forward to hearing your remarks. DEFINITIONS: Money~"Money, as legal tender, is a commodity or asset, or an officially-issued currency or coin that can be legally exchanged for something of equal value, such as a good or service, or that can be used in payment of a debt." (Investopedia) Note that money is not equivalent to wealth. Money is merely a tool. Evil~"Morally reprehensible." (Merriam-Webster) -- Pro's position is one of concurrence regarding the statement, "Money is the root of all evil." In order to invalidate this claim, and win the argument, I need only give a single example of evil which is absent of any monetary aspect or quality, as one example negates the absoluteness inherent to the word "all". But I shall not stop there. I also intend to further elucidate the absurdness of Pro's claim, by attempting to show that money is in fact, a root of all good. And if we hold the Law of Non-Contradiction as axiomatically true, then it can be shown that money can not be both the root of all evil and a root of not-evil (good). It is one or the other. Let's begin. 1. An example of evil which holds no relevance or relationship with money: A good and simplistic example would be an evil deed by an individual who has no sophisticated (or any) concept of money nor wealth. If one is completely unaware and unfamiliar of money and its nature, then the end-goal of their evil, if one exists, most certainly can not be of money. Such an example can be found in the case of the murder of two-year old James Bugler. James was abducted at a mall, tortured, and killed by two ten-year old boys all within a few hours. The motive of the two boys was not one of profit. It was not one of money. It was not one of granted material wealth. Their motive, as it often is, was sheer pleasure in the degradation, dehumanization, and act of paining another individual. These boys found the fulfillment of their deed of evil in and of the deed itself. Money is irrevocably and absolutely irrelevant. Therefore, money is not the root of all evil. (Granted you consider the horrific mutilation and killing of another evil, let alone a two-year old boy) 2. Money is a root of all good: Money rests on the principle that each man is the owner of his effort and of his individual capacity to think. If this were not the case, money could not be. If man is neither the owner of his mind nor effort, the concept of trade itself cannot exist (as trade implies the mutual exchange of personal value, and personal value can not be if nothing is personal), which is a concept necessary for the existence of money, as money is the very tool of trade. I consider the existence of such trade, and the beauty and products which comes of it (such as the very device on which I am now using) to be very good. When men live by free trade (along with the recognition of the power of money to grant it), and with reason, not coercion, as their final authority, it is the best product, the best ability, and the best man who wins. This competition and the freedom to do so is the soul of productivity, the soul of innovation, the soul of achievement. The soul of good. I await my opponent's rebuttals and arguments. Till then. :)