Humanities & Classics 3270
|
|
Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
    |
|
In Reply to: Does Money form a Prison or Freedom? posted by Shannon May on May 14, 1998 at 16:17:35:
I don't think that money itself makes us happy but I don't think that it places us in a prison either.I don't believe that it necessarily has to a one or the other question. People are naturally hedonistic. It is in our nature to want more and better things. In our capitalistic society we tend to believe that this will make us happy, even though we have seen the lives of people who seem to have it all totally fall apart. Money is just a tool for getting things and I think that it is a very useful tool that it is hard not to get caught up in.
I think that freedom is attained when we find something in our lives that we truely love to do and this "thing" obviously depends on the person. A person may love being a CEO, while another loves joining the Peace Corps. Being able to experience our passions and dreams,and the road to those experiences is what makes people happy. Some people happen to make tremendous amounts of money for doing what they love, while others make nothing. But on the reverse side, if all a person does is seek out money as an end in itself, much of the time they will be completely miserable. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will be, but it is likely.
It is also naive to think that money is not a necessity in this country. We do not live in a society that was designed to be self-sufficient. So the majority of the people have to exchange money for many of the things that they absolutely NEED. I think that it pretty tough to consider ourselves free if our basic needs are not fulfilled. I don't think that anyone can honestly tell me that the people who are flat broke out on the street without any food or a home whould say-Hey! This kicks ass! Things can't get any better than this.I'm free!
Even the people I was mentioning who do what they love for nothing do receive money in some form. Food may be donated to them, clothes, a home, etc but all these things were bought by somebody. Money helped to facilitate their freedom in one way or another. But as I said before it only a tool not an end.
I think that money is placed somewhere on a continuum between freedom at one end and a prison at the other. Where money is placed all depends on how each individual views it. I place it slightly closer to freedom, but that's just my opinion. I can totally see how others would put money on the other end. But I do strongly believe that money itself does not equal freedom and it does not equal prison.