The importance of money by @papi.mati
Is money important?
There is no clear answer to that question. Money is the tool that allows us to get what we need to survive and desire to fulfill our dreams and I believe as long as we treat it as a tool, there is nothing wrong with earning it. The problem is when people start to treat money as the goal, when they already have everything that they need and dream about and yet they are working much longer than they suppose to, just to increase their wealth.
In this post, you won't find any clear answer for the question asked in the title. Sometimes easy answers simply don't exist. I will try to present some arguments which will prove that earning the money can be destructive as well as that it can be good for us.
We need money to live
We can discuss many pros and cons but the most basic thesis which everyone has to agree with is that living without money in the modern world is simply impossible. It is easy to comfortably sit in the living room of our big houses with the mug of hot tea from the nearest shop and complain about the money but when we decide to not use it, we cannot survive.
Even living in a house made of wood from the forest, on your own farm, producing own food and clothes from your own wool requires some small amount of money which we would pay taxes for or which we could use for the medicine in case of some illness (you won't produce antibiotics on your own).
Even living in a tent and getting food from dumpster-diving requires money, to fix the tent when broken or buy the products we were unable to find in the trash.
I believe before starting to discuss the importance of money in the modern world, we have to admit that some amount of it is always needed. We can debate how much we need and if we always need it though.
When it starts to be alarming
I do have a problem with people who believe that money is the most important thing in the world. People who have millions and yet, they are focusing on gaining more and more, just to increase their position on Forbes list. Earning the money, as everything, can be addictive, and addiction by nature is something bad.
When someone realizes that they spend 15 hours daily at work and their social life and family suffer, it's obviously wrong.
When someone has everything that they need and yet they rather keep another million on their account than help people in need or invest in something that can make this world better, it's wrong.
When someone is rich although never finds satisfaction in what they own, always desire more and more, it's wrong.
Described situations are the pathologies that clearly shouldn't happen but it's worth mentioning that not every person who works hard thinks like that. There is nothing wrong in earning to survive, to provide yourself and people who you love the security, there is nothing wrong in following dreams or even in having big ideas. It all requires some resources which we have the right to collect.
Significant but not the most important
I'm not in a position of deciding for anyone else what is good for them and what's not. I am trying to live my life with as much acceptance of others' life choices as it's possible. I can say in my example though that I believe some things are more important than money. It's the family, friends, ecology, learning new things, comfort but above everything it's happiness.
The clue for me is what are we doing to get the money. Imagine that you work in a job you truly hate, maybe it's even against your beliefs (petroleum company for environmentalists or manager of the factory which hires kids for, basically everyone who has a heart). In that case, earning money is not as important as your comfort of being yourself and I would quit the job unless I would have no other options at all. That's quite an extreme example though.
Let's try something more probable: imagine that your work makes you constantly bored. You feel you don't learn anything new, you repeat the same activities day by day, your co-workers annoy you, five minutes after arriving to work, you start looking at the clock and counting the time until you will come back home. In that case, I'd say money is less important than your own happiness and you should at least minimize the time you spend at work.
As the opposite, imagine the dreamed work which fits your hobbies, where you feel comfortable. For me it would be steemit, as I was always dreaming about writing, I can meet new, interesting people here and I simply feel I belong here. In that case, spending extra time at work and earning more money is not a problem, because your effort is not only motivated by the desire to increase your income but also gives you joy.
When I was living in Poland, my economical situation was much better than now. I never was very rich, but I had a big apartment and a good job. I felt very unhappy though. I felt excluded, often unsafe and in many ways, I couldn't fit in the society so I have decided to leave the country and start over in another part of the world. Now, I live much poorer but I feel secure and happy. That example proves that things like belonging or basic security may be much more important than money. On another side, many people migrate to look for better business opportunities and the salary may also motivate someone to change the residence country.
Summary
Money is fundamental for this world and we won't change it. There is nothing wrong with saving and working a bit harder to follow our dreams in the future, but we should always remember to not compromise our happiness on the way to become wealthy. Money should be just the tool that helps us to achieve what we need.
I believe we can agree with all that thesis. It leaves us all with more questions than answers though - how to balance work with life? Why the money distribution around the world is so unequal? Why the same work made in different countries allows one to live wealthy and another to not have enough resources for basics? Finally what we, as individuals, can do to change that situation?
Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati
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