Money, Greed and The Meaning of Life
By: Chris Herd
Tags: Politics, Life Lessons, Future, Money, Economics

People do astounding things for money; they subject themselves to heinous conditions, participate in the most degrading circumstances and waste their most precious resource, time, in the pursuit of it.

The adage that money makes the world go round is the saddest reality of life.

On a planet where the poor could be lifted from the depths of despair through simple monetary investment but aren’t speaks of the greed intrinsic within the human race.

We see the richest among us giving back when they become octogenarians as a means to alleviate their guilt from the opulence and wealth they have selfishly hoarded and they expect adulation. They are given it through knighthoods and recognition whitewashing over the child labour and squalid conditions their factory workers in Bangladesh operate under.

How can the wealthiest elite watch the lifeblood of clean water flow from their gold plated taps while cognisant of the millions of children dying from water-borne diseases in another country?

If you are giving back you have already taken too much.

Money is greed. Psychologically it shackles us and forces us to make irrational decisions.

It is more easily available than heroin but far more addictive.

Why isn’t there a rehab for those who are incapable of controlling themselves and who continually spectate as their lives spiral out of control, Isn’t that what school is for? Instead, further education saddles us with debt that lasts a lifetime and impedes us from flourishing economically. School isn’t the cure it symptomatic of the disease.

And that won’t ever change, the bankers are making too much money. They have found their mechanism for personal enrichment and are exploiting the future of this country. We are rewarded for our selfishness and greed.

Which other species would get a bonus for recklessly gambling their populations future? For us, this inept handling and total lack of corporate responsibility are praised and encouraged.

Instead of caring about and being invested in the long-term benefits of the country having highly educated peoples, the country’s future are being pillaged for every penny that is legally allowed.

Money is also the pre-requisite to life which affords us the opportunity of shelter, but this also straddles us with a lifetime of debt. The older generation has seen property prices rise to unprecedented levels pricing the young out of the market.

Can you see the emerging pattern?

The things we require to avoid the debilitating pitfalls most pertinent to life are the things that most regularly set us on the path of despair.

How do you feed your family if you have no money? You do astounding things for it; you subject yourself to heinous conditions, you participate in the most degrading circumstances and you waste your most precious resource, time, in the pursuit of it.

It is the vicious cycle of life 99.9% can’t escape.

But we are still sold the hope of the ‘American Dream’ which imprisons us by preventing us from taking a stand. We think we can all make it which makes us resist burning down the house.

We accept it instead of questioning, we hope instead of striving for change.

But is it starting to change? We see Bernie and Donald growing in popularity but the establishment doesn’t understand. You can only take so much from those who don’t have it until they decide to fight back, no matter how ill-informed their political choices are.

If there are no chances and people don’t have money they become desperate.

Marry that to the fact that people have the propensity to lust for the most frivolous of things. They don’t appreciate the value of what they possess as they desperately search for what’s next.

We miss the most valuable things in our life searching for something that may never come.

But money is also hope. It is that mother working three jobs to provide her children with the opportunities she never had.

Without the opportunity for hope, we would just give up.

So money keeps us going, we have been conditioned to believe if we work harder we can achieve but that is disingenuous.

HR departments have worked out to the penny exactly how little they can pay you for maximum production while they maximise profits. It’s why we are poorer than our parents.

Management has fucked us and our future is bleak.

Money makes us do irrational things, we go to work to earn money to pay for the gas and car to get us there. We work to pay for the food which gives us the energy to be a productive worker. We work to earn money for vacations which give us a break from working, and the cycle goes on. What % of the money you earn is used in earning that money in the first place? Think of your expenditure on work clothes etc.

Our whole life is focused on making money for other people.

Even if you are an entrepreneur think about where your taxation goes. Whether you pay corporation or personal tax your money still goes to the man, sorry.

And we can’t escape this virtuous cycle.

Generation after generation follows and we don’t solve the problem.

It flows through to the meaning of life: money & economic gain.

As long as we work to earn a living, to enrich our lives and to fund our happiness the meaning of life will always be one governed by economics. It why a utopia has never arisen throughout human history.

Because a utopia alters the paradigm by eradicating the necessity for fiscal responsibility. It anatomises the economy and births the advent of universal incomes which truly support life.

It is the next step after capitalism but we believe there can be no improvement on the capitalist model. We have been programmed to believe democratic stability is supported by the moniker that greed is good.

Somehow we have been convinced that greed is the mechanism which ensures honesty by endowing a select few with power and wealth.

But robots are coming and they will take our jobs.

I realise that is the theory which has reigned supreme for generations but technological progress has ensured it is an impending reality. Look at the proliferation of autonomous vehicles.

Where do the uber drivers go and what happens when the autonomy transitions to trucks? 4 million workers in the USA alone would be displaced/disrupted by this new technology and that is just the beginning.

Money is the medium which has grown to define us.

It defines our social standing, the institutions we are able to attend, the restaurants we eat at and the clothes we wear. It is ingrained so deeply within our being that imagination of a world without is inconceivable.

But what if?

The development of blockchain and cryptocurrencies threatens the financial model. They are scrambling to get a piece.

You might not see it yet, but what happens when banks are not a necessity and trust is ensured through alternative means? Trust has been the limitation which has prevented the advent of certain systems, it is the currency that enables transactions to occur in higher frequency.

So perhaps technology is the key which frees us from this precipitous world. Our dependence on credit will be eradicated.

Or more likely the current elite will acquire the means for autonomy, replace the workers earning a pittance with even cheaper machines and try to profit even more.

Because there are no depths we wouldn’t stoop to in order to acquire more money.

Capital is King.

‘Get rich or die trying’ is the string which defines us as a race.