Let’s start with the age old, and worn phrase of that “money is the root of all evil”. Picking this apart, and what its implications are; is that money is the single root cause of all the evil in the world, that without this god-forsaken currency- the world would be a perfect utopia, free of war, free of pain, free from nature.
This is that saying implies. All common phrases, whether they are start out with misinformation or dogma, do have an element of trustworthy emotion, for you can even find truth in a book of lies. To the observer it is easy to see that money makes the world go around, it is the subject of how countries are run, who we elect into office, and our life-style options.
How reasonable it may look to see, that money runs our lives. How reasonable it must be to see that money is responsible for all the horror in the world.
Humans in general are complicated creatures, which by the way is the only thing that separates us from the animals, not that we are more civilized, or kind, but that we have a more complicated way of going about things. One of these complicated things is money, like a knife in the kitchen, or a train on rails, it is a tool, a medium in order to get to an end. At times, this medium is also an end, but it is not morally incorrect to attain wealth, it is only morally wrong if you use this medium to do evil things.
For example, a knife, or a gun, are simply inanimate objects, without will, without conscious. As such, they can be used to commit good or bad. A knife can be used to make a job easier, to prepare food, to create shelter, on the other side of the coin, it can be used as a medium for extortion, or even murder. This is the same with a gun, it can be used for defense, hunting, or revenge, or murder.
With this example in mind, the observer can clearly see that it depends on the wielder of that tool, be it a knife, a gun, or a sum of money, to determine if it is used to do good, or evil. Money has been used to do evil, fund wars, assassinations, create pollution. Money has been used to do good, create charities, homes, hospitals, infrastructure, to incentivize scientific innovations, to provide authors with a living.
Without these tools, we would have to acquire the ends by a different means. Without money for trade, people would be inclined to steal or rob, at gunpoint, or by murder, to get what they need for survival. With money, bloodshed is not necessary, food, or shelter is exchanged for something of equal value, that can be in turn be used to invest, or buy something of value again.
If you are not convinced, if you think that money is still the root of all evil, then I will ask you a question. If money is the root of all evil, what is the root of all money? The answer to this is people. People create knifes, and guns, and use them for good or evil. People create money to be used for good and evil. If money is used to do evil, it is only because of the greed and gluttony of human nature. If money is used to do good, it is only because of the benevolence, and innovational spirit of human nature. So in the end, money is not the root of all evil, it is a simple medium, a tool for human action.
