Money as a Collective Reality
Money has no meaning for us individually. It has often been noted that if one person had all the money in the world, this money would be worthless. Interactions between people and the exchange of goods and services between people would take place with some other commodity, since there would be no money available to engage in these interactions and exchanges. Put simply, money only exists and only has value because it is embraced and used by many (and perhaps all) members of a specific society.
Furthermore, the value assigned to money is ultimately based on an arbitrary, collective decision made by members of a society. In the case of American (and most other contemporary societies), value is assigned to one mineral (gold), which, in turn, is considered the “tangible” backup for the currency being used. While the “gold standard” is actually no longer valid in American society (since every dollar is no longer backed up by a piece of gold assigned the same value), we live with the convenient fiction that the gold in Fort Knox is sufficient to secure the value of every dollar we hold in our wallet.
Given this collective reality, where do we find the valuing of the dollar bill in our society? Many good things can be said about the societal value of money. Most importantly, money provides the benefit of societal stability (latent pattern maintenance). We need only point to the profound instability of American society during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the value of money was in great doubt.
God and Money
I wish to return to the analysis offered by Max Weber and several theologians who have followed him—including Richard Rohr. As Weber noted, the foundation of European society following the Protestant Reformation was based on an assumption that wealth is assigned by God to specific people. Some people were “graced” with God’s beneficence and were predestined to an afterlife in heaven. An earthly sign of this predestined “grace” is the accumulation of large amounts of money in their pocket and estate. Tragically, other people were predestined to an eternity of hell, and were “told” by God that this afterlife awaits them by being given few chances to accumulate wealth.
As a result of this Godly assignment of wealth to some people and poverty to other people, the value of money took on a sacred dimension. Most importantly, this God-given approval of unequal distribution of wealth led to the continuing (and often increasing) abuse of wealth in many Western societies. Many people remained poor and starving.
At most, those with money provided charity to those who were “less fortunate.” Those who held their hat out for a contribution (those being assigned the label, “handicapped”), were supposed to be grateful for the occasional and often arbitrary receipt of money from someone who walks by them on the street or receive financial support in a more formal manner through the beneficence of a charitable organization.
