How often do you see the tool blamed for the evil in the world? How often do you hear shouting for the removal or control of access to a tool?

I see it daily if I bother to look.

We are tool makers. It is what we are. Everything beyond our body that we own, possess, etc. is a form of a tool. Some of the tools are physical, and others are conceptual creations. The conceptual creations are things without true physical form that exist within the confines of our minds.

Yet they are still tools. Tools have purposes.

Language and speaking is perhaps our most important tool. It is this that enables us to teach, share knowledge, and for our species to continue to advance beyond where the people that came before and have since perished in time took things. Without language we would likely need to repeat the same learning processes over and over and many of us would perish before learning techniques, and how to use tools. Language is critical to our survival and advancement.

Yet it is a tool.

There are other interesting tools. There are weapons. These extend our ability to inflict damage. They can also be used to increase our ability to hunt. Yet our weapons long ago out stripped any needs required for hunting. They now are used as arms of other conceptual tools that have been created throughout history such as governments, borders, religion, bigotry, etc. They provide a means for those with better weapons to FORCE their desires upon others that cannot stand against those weapons.

This brings up something I've mentioned before. Tools can be used for good or bad. They can be harmful, or beneficial. They can be wielded for malevolent purposes or benevolent ones. Some of them it can be very difficult to think of a benevolent purpose.

Nuclear physics. It lead to nuclear power, but also to nuclear weapons.

A Nuclear Weapon is very difficult to find a benevolent purpose for. There are some outliers thought that can still qualify. Perhaps as contingency for blowing up an oncoming asteroid that will be an imminent threat to earth (obviously purely hypothetical as to whether it would help or not). Some people could indicate it creates a stale mate that discourages conflict between the largest potential hostile actors.

Yet is also provides a shield behind which those who possess such weapons can oppress and attack those who do not have them under the guise of a lot of verbal spin. We want you to have Democracy as long as you elect only the people we say it is okay for you to elect...

Yet there is an interesting tool that is actually incredibly important. It is often blamed for the woes and the ills that have befallen mankind.

That tool is money. Another word for it is currency.

It was actually this which inspired me to write this post...

What is the purpose of money?

Money is a simple solution to a big problem.

If I grow corn, and I want milk. I have to go find a dairy farmer and see if he will trade milk for my corn. If he has more corn than he needs then he may say no. He may also be angry at me and charge me twice as much corn for milk as he does another neighbor.

The problem though becomes more and more complicated as you add more and more needs into the picture. In some cases you may need to actively seek out someone who wants corn and hope you can find them so you can exchange them for something you know the dairy farmer wants and then you can perhaps get your milk. You can spend a large amount of time simply trying to make this single need be fulfilled.

Money was a conceptual tool for a means of setting a universal token of exchange. Instead of me having to trade people my corn at different rates I can exchange my corn for these tokens. I then can advertise how much corn costs in tokens, and the dairy farmer can do the same for milk. If it is advertised then it could be the same price for everyone, or we could barter/haggle which is also completely voluntary.

The conceptual tool of money had several other major advantages. It is very portable. It can near instantaneously solve supply/demand issues related to disasters or other unforeseen consequences. It works without needing any super genius central planning who knows how much of every part, mineral, and product people will need at a given time. It simplifies that problem a lot.

It can be exchanged for services.

Can it be used for negative purposes? Yes, just as any tool. Is the problem with the money, or the desire to have money?

No.

The negative use of a tool is a conscious decision of a person. Attacking the tool does not resolve the root cause of the problem.

The only reason money is so popular as a source of POWER over others is that it manages to simplify so many complex problems. This also simplifies POWER over others a bit. So as it solves many problems, it also makes other things easier to accomplish as well that are not particularly positive.

Yet choosing to walk that negative path is a choice of a HUMAN and not the tool. The problem ultimately is that the human made the choice. Banning and condemning a tool will not change the fact that it was the human who made the choice.

If the choice was a bad one and you want to do something about it then looking at the tools is not a solution. The motivations, education, mental state, etc are far more relevant areas to be inspecting.

Steem On!