Hi Philosophers!
I'm off spending money for the rest of the month so I've tee'd up this session for when I get back. Super keen to hear your thoughts about money, finance, the economy and how it intercets with philosophical thought. Thanks to the Fight Club W&W group for suggesting some key discussion questions and the topic!
Is money the root of all evil?
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages." - Adam Smith
"In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much"...."It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.” – Jean Jacques Rousseau
"Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons." - Garrat Hardin
“The fact that some property is mine does not entail that other people do not have rightful claims to some portion of it. I am entitled to my salary; it's mine. But my children have a rightful claim to support from my income...I have to pay my bills out of my income. If I negligently injure someone, I am liable to pay them damages from my income. The fact that this income is mine does not settle anything about who else might have legitimate claims to some portion of it, and on what grounds. Note also that I did not have to give my personal consent for some of these others to have a claim on it.” - Elizabeth Anderson
Money runs through nearly every corner of our lives, yet its nature often goes unquestioned. Ethical and religious traditions have long cast money in a suspicious light—think of Jesus driving out the moneylenders or the familiar warning that it is “the root of all evil”—while some economists have argued that money creates pathways for greater equality. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis (#cossielivs) and growing financial stress, many are questioning not only how our financial systems function, but whether they serve us well.
Philosophers, too, have been asking deeper questions about how these systems are established, what assumptions they rest upon, and what responsibilities they create. At the heart of the philosophy of money are pressing concerns: what money really is, what it does to us, and what we owe each other within the economic frameworks we live by.
In this session, we’ll explore different philosophical perspectives on money. I hope you can join us!
Some questions to think about:
- Does money corrupt, liberate, or simply reveal human nature?
- Who bears responsibility for the harms (or benefits) of financial systems—individuals, institutions, governments, or all of us?
- How do economic crises, like the GFC or today’s cost-of-living pressures, reshape our moral view of money?
- Can money give people dignity?
- Do you deserve your wage?
- Is openness about wage/salary a moral duty or just a personal choice?
- What does ethical wealth look like?
- Should financial systems aim for equality, efficiency, stability—or something else entirely?
- Would you live under a dictatorship that succeeded in eliminating poverty, achieved sustainable development and had equitable distribution?
- What is a just/fair wage? Should income be capped?
- Is organised crime a natural response to government policy restricting unmet market demands?
- Is the system broken or are institutions delivering exactly the results they were designed to do?
- Could AI and technology facilitate a world where all "work" is outsourced? Would we need money in this society?
Thought Experiment: Imagine a society where money has been abolished and replaced with a new system of exchange—whether digital credits, resource-sharing, or trade. What would change about power, justice, and human relationships? Would such a system truly solve the problems money creates, or just reinvent them in a different form?
Elizabeth Andersons 3 part series on why you must pay tax
https://left2right.typepad.com/main/2005/01/how_not_to_comp.html
About Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJRhn53X2M
