Money and evil

I have to say that I don't always agree with the thoughts of Peter Singer (those that I understand, anyway) but they are almost always provocative. His latest is on the way in which money reduces communal feeling.

Why does money makes us less willing to seek or give help, or even to sit close to others? Vohs and her colleagues suggest that as societies began to use money, the necessity of relying on family and friends diminished, and people were able to become more self-sufficient. "In this way," they conclude, "money enhanced individualism but diminished communal motivations, an effect that is still apparent in people's responses today."

He says that's not a full explanation and I agree. He also makes this point:

I am not pleading for a return to the simpler days of barter or self-sufficiency. Money enables us to trade – and thus to benefit from each other's special skills and advantages. Without money, we would be immeasurably poorer, and not only in a financial sense.

Very much so. But it's worth pointing out that the latter wealth comes from the former reduction in communal motivations and the rise in individualism. Money and the markets it makes possible mean that we can trade with strangers: indeed, we can trade with people whose existence we are entirely unaware of.

By untying ourselves from the necessity of trading with only those we know, our local community, money itself is one of the major causes of our current wealth.

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