The love of money

"The love of money is the root of all evil."

I forget who said that...

It does have a nice ring to it...

Which does not detract from its inaccuracy...

Memo: The "love of money" has been confirmed not to be the "root of all evil," as previously reported.

I do not even need to defer to the image of a mother desperate to feed her starving children to prove that loving money is not equal to evil, but rather equal to loving what one intends to do with it.

• I love money because I desire to purchase materials that allow me to poison my body with toxic substances. Does this make me evil?
• I love money because I enjoy paying taxes. Does this make me evil?
  
• I love money because I enjoy the act of stealing it from starving children. Does this make me evil?

Actually, I afford booze and taxes by depriving children. I don't do it exclusively for profit. I do it because I love the activity of deceiving parents and their children. Really, it's not about the money. Yet, I'm not exactly ripping money from a child's hand and setting it on the counter next to my box of wine. That would be stupid...

People don't like to sell booze to an alcoholic, much less a person who drinks and then steals from innocent children.

As for taxes, I don't exactly claim "stealing from children" as business income on my tax return. I use some other flowery language related to advertising revenue.

As much as I love stealing from children, it is, in practice, a rare luxury. I am too busy managing my company which makes 1 billion in profits a year.

Am I evil now?

First of all, there is no proof I actually love profit for its own sake (it's not really the money I love so much as removing it from those little hands). Second of all, most of this money isn't even mine. It goes into the making of the widgets and paying the people to make them. These widgets happen to be used to make the hamburger that I watch the starving children purchase before I rip it from their hands and devour it in front of their faces. This is why I do what I do. Oh, if only I had more time...

Instead I am busy fulfilling a need for all the other people who require hamburgers so that they can steal them from their own starving children behind their parent's backs. That is what I do. I don't mind if some hamburgers incidentally make it to the bellies of starving children...I couldn't care less.

If my activities were for the perpetual pursuit of an infinite amount of dollars, and every penny was stolen from the desperate hand of a starving child, a love of money is not to thank. It is the ignorance of my customers, lawmakers, and benefactors that permits and encourages the achievement of my most true love.

But most of all, it is the parents for never even recognizing the hand that rips away that which their children might have had otherwise, as depriving them of currency is only the beginning. For their undiscerning eye, I am truly grateful.

"Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil."
— Plato

(The love of money is just a particularly nefarious branch)