CURMUDGUCATION: Worshiping Money

CURMUDGUCATION: Worshipping Money:

Worshiping Money

It's in our country's dna, this conflicted view about wealth. The Puritans believed that money and wealth and stuff were unimportant, that anything that glorified the person and not God was bad. But the Puritans also believed that God would watch over His chosen individuals, and so wealth and stuff were a sign that you were one of God's elect.

We also have a history of misplaced disdain for money, like the stereotypical Boomer hippies who could turn their nose up at money because they would never really have to do without it. It is easy to make fun of people who care too much about money when you're not worrying about how you'll get money to feed your kids this week.

But there is a difference between a respect for money and the worship of it. There is even, I'd argue, a difference between greed and the worship of money.

Greed is about the desire to Buy Stuff, to Have More Stuff, to use money for its power of acquisition. But the worship of money is something more. The worship of money imbues money with power and value that it simply does not have.

The worship of money says that money is how we keep score. The worship of money says that CURMUDGUCATION: Worshipping Money: