★Is money the root of all evil? ▶

Is money the root of all evil?

It seems we’re willing to collectively pay millions and millions to junk and fast food makers, soda companies, pharmaceutical companies, and of course we’re also willing to collectively pay millions to makers of electronics like the latest smart phone or Hd television, and then were willing or just plain addicted to watching hours of tv shows interlaced with ads that dumb us down or program us into fear, to buy even more of the crap being foisted on us. So is money really the problem, or is it what we’ve been programmed to spend it on, more the problem?

Hey, Robert. I can answer your question. The root of all evil is The Federal Reserve. The devil answers to the central bank.

I’m serious about my answer, but, to get closer to what you are getting at I don’t think we have to look very hard or very long to see the underlying truth of the meaninglessness chase for material things to give our lives meaning. Things will never make us happy – at least for very long ‘cause there will always be that “next thing” we need to make us happy. Any happiness we find in a material thing is fleeting. The people with large bank accounts and fine houses struggle with many of the same things that us poor folk do. In one sense, even, they struggle more. All we have to do to see the truth in this is to watch a video of a child in a poor country with a huge smile on his face playing with a ball or some other simple toy. Not even children only, we can see it in adults who “have nothing”. When survival itself is one of your daily concerns, a lot of meaningless stuff goes right out the window. If you or a loved one is in a hospital bed fighting cancer, the things that are important in life become quite clear and the importance, or lack of importance of the big television also becomes clear. Part of the difficulty we humans have, especially those with few genuine worries like those of basic survival, is “thinking” itself. The title of our website is “bmindful”, and it is worth it to take a minute and reflect on what that means. Being mindful, at least in part, has to do with being aware of our thinking. Being mindful has to do with being present – being in the now – smelling the roses. You and I are not our “thinking”. You and I are the awareness of our thinking and perceiving. Most people, I’m not using the term “most” lightly, most people are lost in thinking. Whenever we are thinking or worrying about the future or what we need to do next or what we should have done differently, we are not being present. Planning and reflecting are important, but, we mustn’t let those things drown out being ‘cause that being in the now is “where it’s at”. We are never literally in the future or the past, we are always in the now even if we are missing out on it and not seeing it ‘cause we are distracted by our thinking. Thoughts arise constantly, it is the nature of being a sentient being, but, we don’t have to follow every thought we have as if we were being dragged along by a leash. We don’t have to follow all the commercials either, but, first we have to wake ourselves up. We can stop “clutching” for meaningless material things so much. Once we do that we can help others wake up too.

This could make for an interesting thread. Lots of moving parts and what if’s.

To jump in, let’s consider a few things and decide if we think they are true or not.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that some things are getting better in some ways very quickly and some things are getting worse in some ways very quickly. Technology seems to be advancing faster than humans and I don’t know how well we are keeping up as a species. I think of children being thrown into a world of social media without the maturity to handle it. Another thing that comes to my mind is the suffering this is causing. We have children being exposed to horrible things, both through the media/social media and in worse ways around the world without support systems or tools to handle them. Through suffering, though, we also gain some measure of wisdom, hopefully.

Then we have the 1% steering the ship thing. That is a big can of worms with lots of aspects. Those with the most money and influence can and do rig the system to favor themselves economically by eliminating competition. (I’m just talking about the economic and political system right now.) However, from another perspective, if we take out the corruption in the system, the 1% from a pure free economic standpoint are not in any way making the poor poorer. In fact, they are raising the standard of living of the poor, though, with the corruption added in they are not helping the poor as much as their capital otherwise would. Wealth and prosperity is not a zero sum game. Those with a larger base to start with will, if they invest their money or capital wisely, will always be ahead of those who start with a smaller base, that, however, does not mean that both can’t move up with regard to their standard of living. both should. And, in fact, those at the top make it possible for more people to create a capital and improve their economic conditions because their capitals filter out into the economy to other people. People confuse (and were purposely mislead by some) the term “trickle down” economics with capitalism and cronyism. Cronyism and capitalism are not the same things and whatever term you want to use to describe what happens with regard to economic growth, “trickle down” economics is not some sort of political gimmic or slight of hand to rob people, it is simply how economics growth happens. Saying that “trickle down” economics is somehow evil would be like saying that the moon is somehow evil for being round or for not reflecting enough light. There are only three ways to make money, or make a profit (and no, profit is not evil, it pays all wages, without profit there are no wages to pay) the three ways are to trade your time and labor for a profit, make a product and sell it for a profit, or rent a property for a profit. (Lending money or investing is like renting your money for a profit.) Another thing to discuss if whether or not the 1% is actually steering the boat. In some ways they are, but, in some ways they aren’t. I want to discuss that too, but, I’m going to wait for a bit ‘cause I’m tired of typing right now.

Here is the best video I have ever seen regarding how the central bank is robbing people and has been doing so for a century. It is more narrowly focused that Zeitgeist. If you folks want to learn something that very few people know or understand watch this video enough times that you understand what is happening.
The Biggest Scam in the History of Manking