Are we slaves to money?

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I've always considered myself fiscally conservative and still do, but recently, with my inability to find a job added to the fact that America is a workaholic nation, are we really slaves to the almighty dollar?

One common sentiment is that under communism, you are a complete slave to the government, and I agree. But no one seems to question capitalism. I believe capitalism is the most free compared to socialism and communism, but many conservatives treat as a system without flaws.

A hundred years ago, people obviously still earned and spent money, but it wasn't the required object that it is today. People bartered and traded all the time. Not to mention that when you owned a piece of land, you kept it after paying it off. No property taxes, and no income tax on what you earned. So, in theory, a person back then who owned land and animals only needed money to acquire the basic items from the town store.

Not everyone had access to these commodities, but there wasn't a general push to earn big money and college wasn't a required path to attain a good wage.

Since then, I think society has become very materialistic, and because of this, we now have two groups of people who are affected. First, we have created a group who are constantly one-upping everyone else, and who are obsessed with their "social status." Second, we have a group of people who have no desire to be rich, but are constantly told from day one that they need to grow up to an expensive university that they can't afford in the first place, just to hopefully get a higher chance of attaining a well-paying job, which is used as a way to impress others, as seen in group one. Group two are the people who reject this, but are still subjected to the system. If people refuse to go to college due to cost, they instantly are not taken as seriously by employers as would someone who obtained a degree. If they don't care about impressing others, it might cause depression and a lower chance of success in the corporate world, which revolves around "faux professionalism."

Is this the kind of system that money has created for us? It sure seems so. We may not be under communism, but we sure are slaves to money and the system that it's created.

All mammals are greedy... and since money are a more liquid asset than food, gasoline or furniture, money will always exist.

While living like the smurfs (the second phase of communism) is a tempting life style, the 10% who do not join the 90% will most likely seize to opportunity and exploit the system.

Money is just a form of exchange. It seems like asking if we are slaves to money is like asking if we are slaves to acquiring resources for survival.

I do think that debt is a form of slavery. Maybe indentured servitude would be a better term.

If you have enough money, you'll likely answer no. But not having enough makes one realize just how much we need it. When the rent or mortgage and utility bills and grocery bills add up to more than you have, you definitely feel enslaved.

Yes, and no.

We are slaves to the system of which money is the life blood.

Money is a antiquated measure of value that his since been turned into a means to validate scarcity and the biased distribution of resources to the few.

An alternative is possible and even necessary, unfortunately the benefactors of the money system have such a stranglehold over peoples awareness and ideas i do not know if a breakthrough is possible.

If you have a major credit card you are a slave.

We are a slave to anything that does not allow us to have a little time each week to rest from it, to reflect on the more meaningful things on life, and to spend a day or days devoted just to the people closest to you in your life. You should be allowed to disconnect for a little bit each from everything you are currently enslaved to.

Be it money, video games, women, going out, career, your passions, etc.

It's hard to get by without living on credit. I don't think this makes me a slave to the money though. I just accept that I will always be in debt.

Are we slaves to money? No. But money is still necessary for production and commerce. We have gone beyond the simple nuts and berry economies and money is the only way to manage the combinatorial complexities of trade and production.

Unfortunately there is a class of people who have made money the primary reality, rather than the activities of production and trade that underly money.

ruveyn

No matter how much one may deny it, we are all slaves to money (money stones count too).
Think about it: if you're ill, you likely need some form of treatment and that will cost money (if you don't pay for it, someone is still paying for it). You need to eat/drink and food/drink costs money. If you have a well, somewhere along the line, money had been paid to find a suitable location and dig the well. If you own a garden, the tools to till the soil and the seeds cost money, as does any fertilizer (even if one didn't pay for manure, food produced it, which costs money). If one drives, the vehicle, maintenance and fuel all cost money. If you wear clothes, that too cost money. If you have a home, that costs money. Pets, infrastructure, education, heating/cooling, ovens, children, livestock, gifts, computers, Internet access all costs money, even if you personally didn't contribute to purchasing these things.

Yep but thats corporate capitalism for ya.

More like slavery by consent.