essay on money is root of all evil

Essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil

Students are often asked to write an essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil

Introduction.

Money is a vital tool in our lives. It helps us buy goods, services and secures a comfortable life. But, it’s often said that “Money is the root of all evil.”

Money and Evil

The phrase doesn’t mean money itself is evil. Rather, it’s the love of money that can lead to evil actions. People may lie, cheat, or steal for money, causing harm to others.

So, it’s not money, but the misuse of it that causes evil. We must learn to use money wisely, ensuring it benefits us without causing harm.

250 Words Essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil

The saying “Money is the root of all evil” is a phrase that incites much debate. It is a statement that has been used to critique and analyze the societal obsession with wealth and monetary gain.

Money: A Tool or a Master?

The destructive power of greed.

Greed, often fueled by the desire for money, can lead to a host of evils. It can breed corruption, inequality, and even violence. The widening wealth gap and the exploitation of vulnerable populations are tangible manifestations of this greed.

Money and Morality

However, it’s crucial to note that money itself is not inherently evil. It is the love of money, the obsession, and the greed that can lead to immoral actions. Hence, it’s not money, but the misuse of money that is the root of evil.

In conclusion, money is a necessary tool in our society, but it becomes a problem when individuals value it above all else. Thus, it’s not the money, but the human attitude towards it that can potentially be the root of all evil. This understanding can help us foster a healthier relationship with wealth and prevent the evils associated with its misuse.

500 Words Essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil

The notion of money as the root of all evil.

Money, a medium of exchange, has been a part of human civilization for thousands of years. It has been a driving force behind human progress, facilitating trade, and fostering economic development. However, it is often said that “money is the root of all evil,” a phrase derived from a biblical quote. This essay will delve into this contentious assertion, examining the role of money in society and its potential to engender malevolence.

Money’s Inherent Neutrality

Money, in its essence, is a neutral entity. It is a tool that can be used for good or ill, depending on the intentions of the user. Money can fund philanthropic endeavors, support scientific research, and provide for basic human needs. Conversely, it can also be used to finance illicit activities, corruption, and greed. The problem, therefore, does not lie with money itself but with the human attitudes and behaviors associated with it.

The Human Factor: Greed and Corruption

Money and power dynamics.

Money also plays a pivotal role in power dynamics, often leading to inequality and injustice. Those with wealth can exert influence over political systems, skewing policies in their favor and perpetuating social inequities. In this sense, money can be seen as a source of evil. However, again, it is the misuse of money for power and control, rather than money itself, that is the root of such evils.

Money as a Means, Not an End

To mitigate the potential negative impacts of money, society must shift its perspective. Money should be viewed as a means to an end, not an end in itself. This requires fostering a culture that values integrity, fairness, and social responsibility above the accumulation of wealth. Education plays a critical role in this, promoting ethical behavior and responsible financial management.

Conclusion: A Nuanced Understanding

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Is Money The Root of All Evil: Analysis of The Debate

Categories: Money

About this sample

Words: 1009 |

Published: Sep 5, 2023

Words: 1009 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Introduction, arguments for money as the root of all evil, arguments against money as the root of all evil, the role of individual responsibility.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

Expert in: Economics

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 992 words

4 pages / 1928 words

3 pages / 1313 words

2 pages / 1045 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Money

Money, often described as the lifeblood of modern society, plays a pivotal role in our lives. Its importance extends far beyond the mere acquisition of material possessions. In this essay, we will explore the multifaceted [...]

Hold on, think to yourself for a second about this question “Can Money Buy Happiness”? You’d say “oh that’s obvious I’d just give you some money and you some money and now we’re best friends”! Not exactly, just give me a moment [...]

The age-old debate of cash versus credit card continues to be a topic of discussion and personal preference. Both payment methods have their advantages and drawbacks, and choosing the right one depends on various factors. In [...]

Happiness is a universal goal pursued by individuals across different cultures and societies. The famous adage "money can't buy happiness" has been debated for centuries, yet the relationship between financial wealth and [...]

Happiness, often defined as a state of contentment and overall well-being, is a multifaceted concept influenced by an array of internal and external factors. Delving into its complexities raises the pertinent question: to what [...]

Happiness and money, both are an important role in human’s life. There is a question that many people will argue about the impact from them, which have more benefit to people, it also means which is more important for people [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

Essay Service Examples Religion Problem of Evil

Is Money A Root Of Evil?

Introduction

Proper editing and formatting
Free revision, title page, and bibliography
Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Our writers will provide you with an essay sample written from scratch: any topic, any deadline, any instructions.

Cite this paper

Join our 150k of happy users

Get original paper written according to your instructions
Save time for what matters most

Fair Use Policy

EduBirdie considers academic integrity to be the essential part of the learning process and does not support any violation of the academic standards. Should you have any questions regarding our Fair Use Policy or become aware of any violations, please do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected].

We are here 24/7 to write your paper in as fast as 3 hours.

Provide your email, and we'll send you this sample!

By providing your email, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .

Say goodbye to copy-pasting!

Get custom-crafted papers for you.

Enter your email, and we'll promptly send you the full essay. No need to copy piece by piece. It's in your inbox!

How to go to Heaven

How to get right with god.

Why is the love of money the root of all kinds of evil?

For further study, related articles, subscribe to the, question of the week.

Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox!

Table of Contents
Random Entry
Chronological
Editorial Information
About the SEP
Editorial Board
How to Cite the SEP
Special Characters
Advanced Tools
Support the SEP
PDFs for SEP Friends
Make a Donation
SEPIA for Libraries
Entry Contents

Bibliography

Academic tools.

Friends PDF Preview
Author and Citation Info
Back to Top

Philosophy of Money and Finance

Finance and philosophy may seem to be worlds apart. But they share at least one common ancestor: Thales of Miletus. Thales is typically regarded as the first philosopher, but he was also a financial innovator. He appears to have been what we would now call an option trader. He predicted that next year’s olive harvest would be good, and therefore paid a small amount of money to the owners of olive presses for the right to the next year’s use. When the harvest turned out to be as good as predicted, Thales earned a sizable amount of money by renting out the presses (Aristotle, Politics , 1259a).

Obviously, a lot has changed since Thales’ times, both in finance and in our ethical and political attitudes towards finance. Coins have largely been replaced by either paper or electronic money, and we have built a large infrastructure to facilitate transactions of money and other financial assets—with elements including commercial banks, central banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, and investment funds. This institutional multiplicity is due to concerted efforts of both private and public agents, as well as innovations in financial economics and in the financial industry (Shiller 2012).

Our ethical and political sensitivities have also changed in several respects. It seems fair to say that most traditional ethicists held a very negative attitude towards financial activities. Think, for example, of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple from moneylenders, and the widespread condemnation of money as “the root of all evil”. Attitudes in this regard seem to have softened over time. However, the moral debate continues to recur, especially in connection with large scandals and crises within finance, the largest such crisis in recent memory of course being the global financial crisis of 2008.

This article describes what philosophical analysis can say about money and finance. It is divided into five parts that respectively concern (1) what money and finance really are (metaphysics), (2) how knowledge about financial matters is or should be formed (epistemology), (3) the merits and challenges of financial economics (philosophy of science), (4) the many ethical issues related to money and finance (ethics), and (5) the relationship between finance and politics (political philosophy).

1.1 What is Money?

1.2 what is finance, 2. epistemology, 3. philosophy of science, 4.1.1 the love of money, 4.1.2 usury and interest, 4.1.3 speculation and gambling, 4.2.1 deception and fraud, 4.2.2 avoiding conflicts of interest, 4.2.3 insider trading, 4.3.1 systemic risk and financial crises, 4.3.2 microfinance, 4.3.3 socially responsible investment, 5.1 financialization and democracy, 5.2 finance, money, and domestic justice, 5.3 finance and global justice, other internet resources, related entries, 1. metaphysics.

Money is so ever-present in modern life that we tend to take its existence and nature for granted. But do we know what money actually is? Two competing theories present fundamentally different ontologies of money.

The commodity theory of money: A classic theory, which goes back all the way to Aristotle ( Politics , 1255b–1256b), holds that money is a kind of commodity that fulfills three functions: it serves as (i) a medium of exchange, (ii) a unit of account, and (iii) a store of value. Imagine a society that lacks money, and in which people have to barter goods with each other. Barter only works when there is a double coincidence of wants ; that is, when A wants what B has and B wants what A has. But since such coincidences are likely to be uncommon, a barter economy seems both cumbersome and inefficient (Smith 1776, Menger 1892). At some point, people will realize that they can trade more easily if they use some intermediate good—money. This intermediate good should ideally be easy to handle, store and transport (function i). It should be easy to measure and divide to facilitate calculations (function ii). And it should be difficult to destroy so that it lasts over time (function iii).

Monetary history may be viewed as a process of improvement with regard to these functions of money (Ferguson 2008, Weatherford 1997). For example, some early societies used certain basic necessities as money, such as cattle or grain. Other societies settled on commodities that were easier to handle and to tally but with more indirect value, such as clamshells and precious metals. The archetypical form of money throughout history are gold or silver coins—therefore the commodity theory is sometimes called metallism (Knapp 1924, Schumpeter 1954). Coinage is an improvement on bullion in that both quantity and purity are guaranteed by some third party, typically the government. Finally, paper money can be viewed as a simplification of the trade in coins. For example, a bank note issued by the Bank of England in the 1700s was a promise to pay the bearer a certain pound weight of sterling silver (hence the origin of the name of the British currency as “pounds sterling”).

The commodity theory of money was defended by many classical economists and can still be found in most economics textbooks (Mankiw 2009, Parkin 2011). This latter fact is curious since it has provoked serious and sustained critique. An obvious flaw is that it has difficulties in explaining inflation, the decreasing value of money over time (Innes 1913, Keynes 1936). It has also been challenged on the grounds that it is historically inaccurate. For example, recent anthropological studies question the idea that early societies went from a barter economy to money; instead money seems to have arisen to keep track of pre-existing credit relationships (Graeber 2011, Martin 2013, Douglas 2016).

The credit theory of money: According to the main rival theory, coins and notes are merely tokens of something more abstract: money is a social construction rather than a physical commodity. The abstract entity in question is a credit relationship; that is, a promise from someone to grant (or repay) a favor (product or service) to the holder of the token (Macleod 1889, Innes 1914, Ingham 2004). In order to function as money, two further features are crucial: that (i) the promise is sufficiently credible, that is, the issuer is “creditworthy”; and (ii) the credit is transferable, that is, also others will accept it as payment for trade.

It is commonly thought that the most creditworthy issuer of money is the state. This thought provides an alternative explanation of the predominance of coins and notes whose value is guaranteed by states. But note that this theory also can explain so-called fiat money, which is money that is underwritten by the state but not redeemable in any commodity like gold or silver. Fiat money has been the dominant kind of money globally since 1971, when the United States terminated the convertibility of dollars to gold. The view that only states can issue money is called chartalism , or the state theory of money (Knapp 1924). However, in order to properly understand the current monetary system, it is important to distinguish between states’ issuing versus underwriting money. Most credit money in modern economies is actually issued by commercial banks through their lending operations, and the role of the state is only to guarantee the convertibility of bank deposits into cash (Pettifor 2014).

Criticisms of the credit theory tend to be normative and focus on the risk of overexpansion of money, that is, that states (and banks) can overuse their “printing presses” which may lead to unsustainable debt levels, excessive inflation, financial instability and economic crises. These are sometimes seen as arguments for a return to the gold standard (Rothbard 1983, Schlichter 2014). However, others argue that the realization that money is socially constructed is the best starting point for developing a more sustainable and equitable monetary regime (Graeber 2010, Pettifor 2014). We will return to this political debate below ( section 5.2 ).

The social ontology of money: But exactly how does the “social construction” of money work? This question invokes the more general philosophical issue of social ontology, with regard to which money is often used as a prime example. In an early philosophical-sociological account, Georg Simmel (1900) describes money as an institution that is a crucial precondition for modernity because it allows putting a value on things and simplifies transactions; he also criticizes the way in which money thereby replaces other forms of valuation (see also section 4.1 ).

In the more recent debate, one can distinguish between two main philosophical camps. An influential account of social ontology holds that money is the sort of social institution whose existence depends on “collective intentionality”: beliefs and attitudes that are shared in a community (Searle 1995, 2010). The process starts with someone’s simple and unilateral declaration that something is money, which is a performative speech act. When other people recognize or accept the declaration it becomes a standing social rule. Thus, money is said to depend on our subjective attitudes but is not located (solely) in our minds (see also Lawson 2016, Brynjarsdóttir 2018, Passinsky 2020, Vooys & Dick 2021).

An alternative account holds that the creation of money need not be intentional or declarative in the above sense. Instead money comes about as a solution to a social problem (the double coincidence of wants) – and it is maintained simply because it is functional or beneficial to us (Guala 2016, Hindriks & Guala 2021). Thus what makes something money is not the official declarations of some authority, but rather that it works (functions) as money in a given society (see also Smit et al. 2011; 2016). (For more discussion see the special issue by Hindriks & Sandberg 2020, as well as the entries on social ontology and social institutions ).

One may view “finance” more generally (that is, the financial sector or system) as an extension of the monetary system. It is typically said that the financial sector has two main functions: (1) to maintain an effective payments system; and (2) to facilitate an efficient use of money. The latter function can be broken down further into two parts. First, to bring together those with excess money (savers, investors) and those without it (borrowers, enterprises), which is typically done through financial intermediation (the inner workings of banks) or financial markets (such as stock or bond markets). Second, to create opportunities for market participants to buy and sell money, which is typically done through the invention of financial products, or “assets”, with features distinguished by different levels of risk, return, and maturation.

The modern financial system can thus be seen as an infrastructure built to facilitate transactions of money and other financial assets, as noted at the outset. It is important to note that it contains both private elements (such as commercial banks, insurance companies, and investment funds) and public elements (such as central banks and regulatory authorities). “Finance” can also refer to the systematic study of this system; most often to the field of financial economics (see section 3 ).

Financial assets: Of interest from an ontological viewpoint is that modern finance consists of several other “asset types” besides money; central examples include credit arrangements (bank accounts, bonds), equity (shares or stocks), derivatives (futures, options, swaps, etc.) and funds (trusts). What are the defining characteristics of financial assets?

The typical distinction here is between financial and “real” assets, such as buildings and machines (Fabozzi 2002), because financial assets are less tangible or concrete. Just like money, they can be viewed as a social construction. Financial assets are often derived from or at least involve underlying “real” assets—as, for example, in the relation between owning a house and investing in a housing company. However, financial transactions are different from ordinary market trades in that the underlying assets seldom change hands, instead one exchanges abstract contracts or promises of future transactions. In this sense, one may view the financial market as the “meta-level” of the economy, since it involves indirect trade or speculation on the success of other parts of the economy.

More distinctly, financial assets are defined as promises of future money payments (Mishkin 2016, Pilbeam 2010). If the credit theory of money is correct, they can be regarded as meta-promises: promises on promises. The level of abstraction can sometimes become enormous: For example, a “synthetic collateralized debt obligation” (or “synthetic CDO”), a form of derivative common before the financial crisis, is a promise from person A (the seller) to person B (the buyer) that some persons C to I (speculators) will pay an amount of money depending on the losses incurred by person J (the holder of an underlying derivative), which typically depend on certain portions (so-called tranches) of the cash flow from persons K to Q (mortgage borrowers) originally promised to persons R to X (mortgage lenders) but then sold to person Y (the originator of the underlying derivative). The function of a synthetic CDO is mainly to spread financial risks more thinly between different speculators.

Intrinsic value: Perhaps the most important characteristic of financial assets is that their price can vary enormously with the attitudes of investors. Put simply, there are two main factors that determine the price of a financial asset: (i) the credibility or strength of the underlying promise (which will depend on the future cash flows generated by the asset); and (ii) its transferability or popularity within the market, that is, how many other investors are interested in buying the asset. In the process known as “price discovery”, investors assess these factors based on the information available to them, and then make bids to buy or sell the asset, which in turn sets its price on the market (Mishkin 2016, Pilbeam 2010).

A philosophically interesting question is whether there is such a thing as an “intrinsic” value of financial assets, as is often assumed in discussions about financial crises. For example, a common definition of an “asset bubble” is that this is a situation that occurs when certain assets trade at a price that strongly exceed their intrinsic value—which is dangerous since the bubble can burst and cause an economic shock (Kindleberger 1978, Minsky 1986, Reinhart & Rogoff 2009). But what is the intrinsic value of an asset? The rational answer seems to be that this depends only on the discounted value of the underlying future cash flow—in other words, on (i) and not (ii) above. However, someone still has to assess these factors to compute a price, and this assessment inevitably includes subjective elements. As just noted, it is assumed that different investors have different valuations of financial assets, which is why they can engage in trades on the market in the first place.

A further complication here is that (i) may actually be influenced by (ii). The fundamentals may be influenced by investors’ perceptions of them, which is a phenomenon known as “reflexivity” (Soros 1987, 2008). For example, a company whose shares are popular among investors will often find it easier to borrow more money and thereby to expand its cash flow, in turn making it even more popular among investors. Conversely, when the company’s profits start to fall it may lose popularity among investors, thereby making its loans more expensive and its profits even lower. This phenomenon amplifies the risks posed by financial bubbles (Keynes 1936).

Given the abstractness and complexity of financial assets and relations, as outlined above, it is easy to see the epistemic challenges they raise. For example, what is a proper basis for forming justified beliefs about matters of money and finance?

A central concept here is that of risk. Since financial assets are essentially promises of future money payments, a main challenge for financial agents is to develop rational expectations or hypotheses about relevant future outcomes. The two main factors in this regard are (1) expected return on the asset, which is typically calculated as the value of all possible outcomes weighted by their probability of occurrence, and (2) financial risk, which is typically calculated as the level of variation in these returns. The concept of financial risk is especially interesting from a philosophical viewpoint since it represents the financial industry’s response to epistemic uncertainty. It is often argued that the financial system is designed exactly to address or minimize financial risks—for example, financial intermediation and markets allow investors to spread their money over several assets with differing risk profiles (Pilbeam 2010, Shiller 2012). However, many authors have been critical of mainstream operationalizations of risk which tend to focus exclusively on historical price volatility and thereby downplay the risk of large-scale financial crises (Lanchester 2010, Thamotheram & Ward 2014).

This point leads us further to questions about the normativity of belief and knowledge. Research on such topics as the ethics of belief and virtue epistemology considers questions about the responsibilities that subjects have in epistemic matters. These include epistemic duties concerning the acquisition, storage, and transmission of information; the evaluation of evidence; and the revision or rejection of belief (see also ethics of belief ). In line with a reappraisal of virtue theory in business ethics, it is in particular virtue epistemology that has attracted attention from scholars working on finance. For example, while most commentators have focused on the moral failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008, a growing literature examines epistemic failures.

Epistemic failings in finance can be detected both at the level of individuals and collectives (de Bruin 2015). Organizations may develop corporate epistemic virtue along three dimensions: through matching epistemic virtues to particular functions (e.g., diversity at the board level); through providing adequate organizational support for the exercise of epistemic virtue (e.g., knowledge management techniques); and by adopting organizational remedies against epistemic vice (e.g., rotation policies). Using this three-pronged approach helps to interpret such epistemic failings as the failure of financial due diligence to spot Bernard Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme (uncovered in the midst of the financial crisis) (de Bruin 2014a, 2015).

Epistemic virtue is not only relevant for financial agents themselves, but also for other institutions in the financial system. An important example concerns accounting (auditing) firms. Accounting firms investigate businesses in order to make sure that their accounts (annual reports) offer an accurate reflection of the financial situation. While the primary intended beneficiaries of these auditing services are shareholders (and the public at large), accountants are paid by the firms they audit. This remuneration system is often said to lead to conflicts of interest. While accounting ethics is primarily concerned with codes of ethics and other management tools to minimize these conflicts of interests, an epistemological perspective may help to show that the business-auditor relationship should be seen as involving a joint epistemic agent in which the business provides evidence, and the auditor epistemic justification (de Bruin 2013). We will return to issues concerning conflicts of interest below (in section 4.2 ).

Epistemic virtue is also important for an effective governance or regulation of financial activities. For example, a salient epistemic failing that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis seems to be the way that Credit Rating Agencies rated mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance instruments, and with related failures of financial due diligence, and faulty risk management (Warenski 2008). Credit Rating Agencies provide estimates of credit risk of bonds that institutional investors are legally bound to use in their investment decisions. This may, however, effectively amount to an institutional setup in which investors are forced by law partly to outsource their risk management, which fails to foster epistemic virtue (Booth & de Bruin 2021, de Bruin 2017). Beyond this, epistemic failures can also occur among regulators themselves, as well as among relevant policy makers (see further in section 5.1 ).

A related line of work attests to the relevance of epistemic injustice to finance. Taking Fricker’s (2009) work as a point of departure, de Bruin (2021) examines testimonial injustice in financial services, whereas Mussell (2021) focuses on the harms and wrongs of testimonial injustice as they occur in the relationship between trustees and fiduciaries.

Compared to financial practitioners, one could think that financial economists should be at an epistemic advantage in matters of money and finance. Financial economics is a fairly young but well established discipline in the social sciences that seeks to understand, explain, and predict activities within financial markets. However, a few months after the crash in 2008, Queen Elizabeth II famously asked a room full of financial economists in London why they had not predicted the crisis (Egidi 2014). The Queen’s question should be an excellent starting point for an inquiry into the philosophy of science of financial economics. Yet only a few philosophers of science have considered finance specifically (Vergara Fernández & de Bruin 2021). [ 1 ]

Some important topics in financial economics have received partial attention, including the Modigliani-Miller capital structure irrelevance theorem (Hindriks 2008), the efficient market hypothesis (Collier 2011), the Black-Scholes option pricing model (Weatherall 2017), portfolio theory (Walsh 2015), financial equilibrium models (Farmer & Geanakoplos 2009), the concept of money (Mäki 1997), and behavioral finance (Brav, Heaton, & Rosenberg 2004), even though most of the debate still occurs among economists interested in methodology rather than among philosophers. A host of topics remain to be investigated, however: the concept of Value at Risk (VaR) (and more broadly the concept of financial risk), the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the Gaussian copula, random walks, financial derivatives, event studies, forecasting (and big data), volatility, animal spirits, cost of capital, the various financial ratios, the concept of insolvency, and neurofinance, all stand in need of more sustained attention from philosophers.

Most existing work on finance in philosophy of science is concerned with models and modelling (see also models in science and philosophy of economics ). It seems intuitive to view financial markets as extremely complex systems: with so many different factors at play, predicting the price of securities (shares, bonds, etc.) seems almost impossible. Yet mainstream financial economics is firmly committed to the idea that market behavior should be understood as ultimately resulting from interactions of agents maximizing their expected utility. This is a direct application of the so-called neoclassical school of economics that was developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While this school continues to dominate textbooks in the field, there is a growing scholarly trend that seeks to criticize, complement or even replace some of its main assumptions. We can see how the problems play out in both corporate finance and asset pricing theory.

Corporate finance concerns the financing of firms. One question concerns a firm’s capital structure: should a firm obtain funding through equity (that is, from shareholders expecting dividends) or through debt (that is, from bondholders who lend money to the firm and have a contractual right to receive interest on the loans), or through a combination of the two. A key result in corporate finance is the Modigliani-Miller theorem, which says that a firm’s capital structure is irrelevant to its market value (Modigliani & Miller 1958). This theorem makes a number of highly unrealistic assumptions, among them the assumption that markets are efficient, and that there are no taxes. Alongside many other results in economics, it may therefore be considered as useless for predictive purposes; or even as dangerous, once used for such purposes nonetheless (Egidi 2014). In a detailed study of the Modigliani-Miller theorem, Hindriks (2008) has argued, however, that the value of highly idealized models in economics may lie in their providing counterfactual insights, just as in physics. Galileo’s law of free fall tells us what happens in a vacuum. Despite the fact that vacuum is rare in reality, the law is not uninformative, because it allows us to associate observed phenomena to the extent to which an unrealistic assumption must be relaxed. Similarly, if one of the assumptions that the Modigliani-Miller theorem makes is the absence of taxes, the observed relevance of capital structure may well have to be explained as resulting from particular tax regimes. The explanation obtained by relaxing unrealistic assumptions is called “explanation by concretization” (Hindriks 2008).

Explanation by concretization works if models and reality share at least a few concrete features. This is arguably the case for many extant models in finance, including models of bubbles and crises that are immediately relevant to explaining the 2008 crisis (Abreu & Brunnermeier 2003). A fairly recent development called “econophysics” may, however, be an exception. Econophysics uses physics methods to model financial markets (see Rickles 2007 for an overview). Where traditional models of crises include individual investors with beliefs and desires modelled by probability distributions and utility functions, econophysics models capture crises the way physicists model transitions of matter from fluid to solid state (Kuhlmann 2014).

Next, consider asset pricing theory. Ever since Bachelier’s groundbreaking mathematical treatment of asset pricing, financial economists have struggled to find the best way to determine the price developments of securities such as shares, bonds, and derivative instruments such as options. The mathematics of financial returns has received some attention in the literature (de Bruin & Walter 2017; Ippoliti & Chen 2017). Most models assume that returns follow Gaussian random walks, that is, stochastic processes in discrete time with independent and identically distributed increments. Empirical studies show, however, that returns are more peaked than Gaussian distributions, and that they have “fat tails”. This means that extreme events such as financial crises are far less improbable than the models assume. An exception with regards to these assumptions is Benoît Mandelbrot’s (1963) well-known contribution to financial mathematics, and work in this direction is gaining traction in mathematical finance.

A third aspect of financial models concerns the way they incorporate uncertainty (Bertolotti & Magnani 2017). Some of the problems of contemporary financial (and macroeconomic) models are due to the way they model uncertainty as risk, as outlined above (Frydman & Goldberg 2013). Both neo-classical models and behavioral economics capture uncertainty as probabilistic uncertainty, consequently ignoring Knightian uncertainty (Knight 1921 see also decision theory ). The philosophy of science literature that pertains to financial economics is, however, still fairly small (Vergara Fernández & de Bruin 2021).

Having considered the epistemic and scientific challenges of finance, we now turn to the broad range of compelling ethical challenges related to money and finance. The present part is divided into three sections, discussing 1) the claim that financial activities are always morally suspect, 2) various issues of fairness that can arise in financial markets, and 3) discussions about the social responsibilities of financial agents.

4.1 Money as the Root of All Evil?

Throughout cultural history, activities that involve money or finance have been subject to intense moral scrutiny and ethical debate. It seems fair to say that most traditional ethicists held a very negative attitude towards such activities. We will here discuss three very sweeping criticisms, respectively directed at the love of money (the profit motive), usury (lending at interest), and speculation (gambling in finance).

At the heart of many sweeping criticisms of money and finance lies the question of motive. For instance, the full Biblical quotation says that “the love of money is the root of all [kinds of] evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). To have a “love of money”, or (in less moralistic words) a profit motive, means to seek money for its own sake. It has been the subject of much moral criticism throughout history and continues to be controversial in popular morality.

There are three main variations of the criticism. A first variation says that there is something unnatural about the profit motive itself. For example, Aristotle argued that we should treat objects in ways that are befitting to their fundamental nature, and since money is not meant to be a good in itself but only a medium of exchange (see section 1.1 ), he concluded that it is unnatural to desire money as an end in itself ( Politics , 1252a–1260b). A similar thought is picked up by Marx, who argues that capitalism replaces the natural economic cycle of C–M–C (commodity exchanged for money exchanged for commodity) with M–C–M (money exchanged for commodity exchanged for money). Thus the endless accumulation of money becomes the sole goal of the capitalist, which Marx describes as a form of “fetishism” (Marx 1867, volume I).

A second variation of the criticism concerns the character, or more precisely the vice, that the profit motive is thought to exemplify (see also virtue ethics ). To have a love for money is typically associated with selfishness and greed, i.e., a desire to have as much as possible for oneself and/or more than one really needs (McCarty 1988, Walsh & Lynch 2008). Another association is the loss of moral scruples so that one is ready to do anything for money. The financial industry is often held out as the worst in this regard, especially because of its high levels of compensation. Allegations of greed soared after the 2008 crisis, when financial executives continued to receive million-dollar bonuses while many ordinary workers lost their jobs (Piketty 2014, McCall 2010, Andersson & Sandberg 2019).

A third variation of the criticism says that the profit motive signals the absence of more appropriate motives. Kant argued that actions only have moral worth if they are performed for moral reasons, or, more specifically, for the sake of duty. Thus it is not enough that we do what is right, we must also do it because it is right (Kant 1785). Another relevant Kantian principle is that we never should treat others merely as means for our own ends, but always also as ends in themselves (see also Kant’s moral philosophy ). Both of these principles seem to contrast with the profit motive which therefore is rendered morally problematic (Bowie 1999, Maitland 2002). It should come as no surprise that Kant was a strong critic of several examples of “commodification” and other market excesses (see also markets ).

There are two main lines of defensive argumentation. The most influential is Adam Smith’s well-known argument about the positive side-effects of a self-interested pursuit of profits: although the baker and brewer only aim at their own respective good, Smith suggested, they are “led by an invisible hand” to at the same time promote the public good (Smith 1776, see also Mandeville 1732). This argument is typically viewed as a consequentialist vindication of the profit motive (see also consequentialism ): positive societal effects can morally outweigh the possible shortcomings in individual virtue (Flew 1976).

A second argument is more direct and holds that the profit motive can exemplify a positive virtue. For example, there is the well-known Protestant work ethic that emphasizes the positive nature of hard work, discipline and frugality (Long 1972, Wesley 1771). The profit motive can, on this view, be associated with virtues such as ambition, industry, and discipline (see also Brennan 2021). According to Max Weber (1905), the Protestant work ethic played an important role in the development of capitalism. But it is not clear whether any of these arguments can justify an exclusive focus on profits, of course, or rather give permission to also focus on profits under certain circumstances.

If having a love of money seems morally suspect, then the practice of making money on money—for instance, lending money at interest—could seem even worse. This is another sweeping criticism directed at finance that can be found among the traditional ethicists. Societies in both Ancient and Medieval times typically condemned or banned the practice of “usury”, which originally meant all charging of interest on loans. As the practice started to become socially acceptable, usury came to mean the charging of excessive rates of interest. However, modern Islam still contains a general prohibition against interest, and many countries still have at least partial usury laws, most often setting an upper limit on interest rates.

What could be wrong with lending at interest? Some of the more obscure arguments concern the nature of money (again): Aristotle argued that there is something unnatural with “money begetting money”. While he allowed that money is a useful means for facilitating commercial exchange, Aristotle thought that it has no productive use in itself and so receiving interest over and above the borrowed amount is unnatural and wrong ( Politics , 1258b). A related argument can be found in Aquinas, who argued that money is a good that is consumed on use. Although a lender can legitimately demand repayment of an amount equivalent to the loan, it is illegitimate to demand payment for the use of the borrowed amount and so adding interest is unnatural and wrong ( Summa Theologica , II–II, Q78).

Some more promising arguments concern justice and inequality. For example, as early as Plato we see the expression of the worry that allowing interest may lead to societal instability ( The Republic , II). It may be noted that the biblical condemnations of usury most straightforwardly prohibit interest-taking from the poor. One idea here is that we have a duty of charity to the poor and charging interest is incompatible with this duty. Another idea is that the problem lies in the outcome of interest payments: Loans are typically extended by someone who is richer (someone with capital) to someone who is poorer (someone without it) and so asking for additional interest may increase the inequitable distribution of wealth (Sandberg 2012, Visser & MacIntosh 1998). A third idea, which is prominent in the protestant tradition, is that lending often involves opportunism or exploitation in the sense of offering bad deals to poor people who have no other options (Graafland 2010).

The Islamic condemnation of interest, or riba , adds an additional, third line of argument which holds that interest is essentially unearned or undeserved income: Since the lender neither partakes in the actual productive use of the money lent, nor exposes him- or herself to commercial risk, the lender cannot legitimately share in the gains produced by the loan (Ayub 2007, Birnie 1952, Thomas 2006). Based on this argument, contemporary Islamic banks insist that lenders and borrowers must form a business partnership in order for fees on loans to be morally legitimate (Ayub 2007, Warde 2010). Economists have over the years given several retorts to this argument. Some economists stress that lending also involves risk (e.g., that the borrower defaults and is unable to repay); others stress the so-called opportunity costs of lending (i.e., that the money could have been used more profitably elsewhere); and yet again others stress the simple time-preference of individuals (i.e., that we value present more than future consumption, and therefore the lender deserves compensation for postponing consumption).

The gradual abandonment of the medieval usury laws in the West is typically attributed to a growing acknowledgment of the great potential for economic growth unleashed by easy access to capital. One could perhaps say that history itself disproved Aristotle: money indeed proved to have a productive use. In a short text from 1787, Bentham famously poked fun at many of the classical anti-usury arguments and defended the practice of charging interest from a utilitarian standpoint (Bentham 1787). However, this does not mean that worries about the ethics of charging interest, and allegations of usury, have disappeared entirely in society. As noted above, usury today means charging interest rates that seem excessive or exorbitant. For instance, many people are outraged by the rates charged on modern payday loans, or the way in which rich countries exact interest on their loans from poor countries (Baradaran 2015, Graeber 2011, Herzog 2017a). These intuitions have clear affinities with the justice-based arguments outlined above.

A sweeping criticism of a more contemporary nature concerns the supposed moral defects of speculation. This criticism tends to be directed towards financial activities that go beyond mere lending. Critics of the capitalist system often liken the stock market to a casino and investors to gamblers or punters (Sinn 2010, Strange 1986). More moderate critics insist on a strict distinction between investors or shareholders, on the one hand, and speculators or gamblers, on the other (Bogle 2012, Sorell & Hendry 1994). In any case, the underlying assumption is that the similarities between modern financial activities and gambling are morally troublesome.

On some interpretations, these concerns are similar to those raised above. For example, some argue that speculators are driven by the profit motive whereas investors have a genuine concern for the underlying business enterprise (Hendry 2013). Others see speculation as “parasitic”, that is, to be without productive use, and solely dependent on luck (Borna & Lowry 1987, Ryan 1902). This latter argument is similar to the complaint about undeserved income raised in particular by Islamic scholars (Ayub 2007, Warde 2010).

A more distinct interpretation holds that speculation typically includes very high levels of risk-taking (Borna & Lowry 1987). This is morally problematic when the risks not only affect the gambler him or herself but also society as a whole. A root cause of the financial crisis of 2008 was widespread speculation on very risky derivatives such as “synthetic collateralized debt obligations” (see section 1.2 ). When the value of such derivatives fell dramatically, the financial system as a whole came to the brink of collapse. We will return to this issue below (in section 4.3.1 ). In this regard, the question of risk imposition becomes important too (Moggia 2021).

A related interpretation concerns the supposed short-sightedness of speculation. It is often argued that financial agents and markets are “myopic” in the sense that they care only about profits in the very near term, e.g., the next quarter (Dallas 2012). Modern disclosure requirements force companies to publish quarterly earnings reports. The myopia of finance is typically blamed for negative effects such as market volatility, the continuous occurrence of manias and crashes, inadequate investment in social welfare, and the general shortsightedness of the economy (e.g., Lacke 1996).

Defenders of speculation argue that it can serve a number of positive ends. To the extent that all financial activities are speculative in some sense, of course, the ends coincide with the function of finance more generally: to channel funds to the individuals or companies who can use them in the most productive ways. But even speculation in the narrower sense—of high-risk, short-term bets—can have a positive role to play: It can be used to “hedge” or off-set the risks of more long-term investments, and it contributes to sustaining “market liquidity” (that is, as a means for providing counterparties to trade with at any given point of time) which is important for an efficient pricing mechanism (Angel & McCabe 2009, Koslowski 2009).

4.2 Fairness in Financial Markets

Let us now assume that the existence of financial markets is at least in general terms ethically acceptable, so that we can turn to discuss some of the issues involved in making them fair and just for all parties involve. We will focus on three such issues: deception and fraud (honesty), conflicts of interest (care for customers), and insider trading (fair play).

Some of the best-known ethical scandals in finance are cases of deception or fraud. Enron, a huge US corporation, went bankrupt after it was discovered that its top managers had “cooked the books”, i.e., engaged in fraudulent accounting practices, keeping huge debts off the company’s balance sheet in an effort to make it look more profitable (McLean & Elkind 2003). Other scandals in the industry have involved deceptive marketing practices, hidden fees or costs, undisclosed or misrepresented financial risks, and outright Ponzi schemes (see section 2 ).

While these examples seem obvious, on further examination it is not easy to give an exact definition of financial deception or fraud. The most straightforward case seems to be deliberately misrepresenting or lying about financial facts. However, this assumes that there is such a thing as a financial fact, i.e., a correct way of representing a financial value or transaction. In light of the socially constructed nature of money and finance (see section 1 ), this may not always be clear. Less straightforward cases include simply concealing or omitting financial information, or refraining from obtaining the information in the first place.

A philosophical conception of fraud, inspired by Kant, defines it as denying to the weaker party in a financial transaction (such as a consumer or investor) information that is necessary to make a rational (or autonomous) decision (Boatright 2014, Duska & Clarke 2002). Many countries require that the seller of a financial product (such a company issuing shares) must disclose all information that is “material” to the product. It is an interesting question whether this suggestion, especially the conception of rationality involved, should include or rule out a consideration of the ethical nature of the product (such as the ethical nature of the company’s operations) (Lydenberg 2014). Furthermore, there may be information that is legitimately excluded by other considerations, such as the privacy of individuals or companies commonly protected by “bank secrecy” laws.

But is access to adequate information enough? A complication here is that the weaker party, especially ordinary consumers, may have trouble processing the information sufficiently well to identify cases of fraud. This is a structural problem in finance that has no easy fix, because financial products are often abstract, complex, and difficult to price. Therefore, full autonomy of agents may not only require access to adequate information, but also access to sufficient know how, processing ability and resources to analyze the information (Boatright 2014). One solution is to require that the financial services industry promotes transparent communication in which they track the understanding of ordinary consumers (de Bruin 2014b, Endörfer & De Bruin 2019, Shiller 2012).

Due to the problems just noted, the majority of ordinary consumers refrain from engaging in financial markets on their own and instead rely on the services of financial intermediaries, such as banks, investment funds, and insurance companies. But this opens up new ethical problems that are due to the conflicts of interest inherent in financial intermediation. Simply put, the managers or employees of intermediaries have ample opportunity, and often also incentives, to misuse their customers’ money and trust.

Although it is once again difficult to give an exact definition, the literature is full of examples of such misuse—including so-called churning (trading excessively to generate high fees), stuffing (selling the bank’s undesired assets to a client), front-running (buying an asset for the bank first and then reselling it to the client at a higher price) and tailgating (mimicking a client’s trade to piggyback on his/her information) (Dilworth 1994; Heacock, Hill, & Anderson 1987). Interestingly, some argue that the whole industry of actively managed investment funds may be seen as a form of fraud. According to economic theory, namely, it is impossible to beat the average returns of the market for any given level of financial risk, at least in the long term. Therefore, funds who claim that they can do this for a fee are basically cheating their clients (cf. Hendry 2013, Kay 2015).

A legal doctrine that aims to protect clients is so-called fiduciary duty, which imposes obligations on fiduciaries (those entrusted with others’ money) to act in the sole interest of beneficiaries (those who own the money). The interests referred to are typically taken to be financial interests, so the obligation of the fiduciary is basically to maximize investment returns. But some argue that there are cases in which beneficiaries’ broader interests should take precedence, such as when investing in fossil fuels may give high financial returns but pose serious risks to people’s future (Lydenberg 2014; Sandberg 2013, 2016). In any case, it is often thought that fiduciary duties go beyond the ideal of a free market to instead give stronger protection to the weaker party of a fragile relationship.

As an alternative or compliment to fiduciary duty, some argue for the adoption of a code of ethics or professional conduct by financial professionals. A code of ethics would be less arduous in legal terms and is therefore more attractive to free market proponents (Koslowski 2009). It can also cover other fragile relationships (including those of bank-depositor, advisor-client, etc.). Just as doctors and lawyers have a professional code, then, so finance professionals could have one that stresses values such as honesty, due care and accuracy (de Bruin 2016, Graafland & Ven 2011). But according to critics, the financial industry is simply too subdivided into different roles and competencies to have a uniform code of ethics (Ragatz & Duska 2010). It is also unclear whether finance can be regarded as a profession in the traditional sense, which typically requires a body of specialized knowledge, high degrees of organization and self-regulation, and a commitment to public service (Boatright 2014, Herzog 2019).

Probably the most well-known ethical problem concerning fairness in finance, and also perhaps the one on which philosophers most disagree, is so-called insider trading. Put simply, this occurs when an agent uses his or her position within, or privileged information about, a company to buy or sell its shares (or other related financial assets) at favorable times and prices. For example, a CEO may buy shares in his or her company just before it announces a major increase in earnings that will boost the share price. While there is no fraud or breach of fiduciary duty, the agent seems to be exploiting an asymmetry of information.

Just as in the cases above, it is difficult to give an exact definition of insider trading, and the scope of its operative definition tends to vary across jurisdictions. Most commentators agree that it is the information and its attendant informational asymmetry that counts and, thus, the “insider” need not be inside the company at all—those abusing access to information could be family, friends or other tippees (Irvine 1987a, Moore 1990). Indeed, some argue that even stock analysts or journalists can be regarded as insiders if they trade on information that they have gathered themselves but not yet made publicly available. It is also debatable whether an actual trade has to take place or whether insider trading can consist in an omission to trade based on inside information, or also in enabling others to trade or not trade (Koslowski 2009).

Several philosophical perspectives have been used to explain what (if anything) is wrong with insider trading. A first perspective invokes the concept of fair play. Even in a situation with fully autonomous traders, the argument goes, market transactions are not fair if one party has access to information that the other has not. Fair play requires a “level playing field”, i.e., that no participant starts from an unfairly advantaged position (Werhane 1989, 1991). However, critics argue that this perspective imposes excessive demands of informational equality. There are many asymmetries of information in the market that are seemingly unproblematic, e.g., that an antiquary knows more about antiques than his or her customers (Lawson 1988, Machan 1996). So might it be the inaccessibility of inside information that is problematic? But against this, one could argue that, in principle, outsiders have the possibility to become insiders and thus to obtain the exact same information (Lawson 1988, Moore 1990).

A second perspective views insider trading as a breach of duty, not towards the counterparty in the trade but towards the source of the information. US legislation treats inside information as the property of the underlying company and, thus, insider trading is essentially a form of theft of corporate property (often called the misappropriation theory) (Lawson 1988). A related suggestion is that it can be seen as a violation of the fiduciary duty that insiders have towards the company for which they work (Moore 1990). However, critics argue that the misappropriation theory misrepresents the relationship between companies and insiders. On the one hand, there are many normal business situations in which insiders are permitted or even expected to spread inside information to outside sources (Boatright 2014). On the other hand, if the information is the property of the company, why do we not allow it to be “sold” to insiders as a form of remuneration? (Engelen & van Liedekerke 2010, Manne 1966)

A third perspective deals with the effects, both direct and indirect, of allowing insider trading. Interestingly, many argue that the direct effects of such a policy might be positive. As noted above, one of the main purposes of financial markets is to form (or “discover”) prices that reflect all available information about a company. Since insider trading contributes important information, it is likely to improve the process of price discovery (Manne 1966). Indeed, the same reasoning suggests that insider trading actually helps the counterparty in the trade to get a better price (since the insider’s activity is likely to move the price in the “right” direction) so it is a victimless crime (Engelen & Liedekerke 2010). However, others express concern over the indirect effects, which are likely to be more negative. Allowing insider trading may erode the moral standards of market participants by favoring opportunism over fair play (Werhane 1989). Moreover, many people may be dissuaded from even participating in the market since they feel that it is “rigged” to their disadvantage (Strudler 2009).

4.3 The Social Responsibility of Finance

We will now move on to take a societal view on finance, and discuss ideas relating to the broader social responsibilities of financial agents, that go beyond their basic role as market participants. We will discuss three such ideas here, respectively focusing on systemic risk (a responsibility to avoid societal harm), microfinance (a responsibility towards the poor or unbanked), and socially responsible investment (a responsibility to help address societal challenges).

One root cause of the financial crisis of 2008 was the very high levels of risk-taking of many banks and other financial agents. When these risks materialized, the financial system came to the brink of collapse. Many banks lost so much money that their normal lending operations were hampered, which in turn had negative effects on the real economy, with the result that millions of “ordinary” people around the world lost their jobs. Many governments stepped in to bail out the banks and in consequence sacrificed other parts of public spending. This is a prime example of how certain financial activities, when run amok, can have devastating effects on third parties and society in general.

Much subsequent debate has focused on so-called systemic risk, that is, the risk of failures across several agents which impairs the functioning of the financial system as such (Brunnermeier & Oehmke 2013, Smaga 2014). The concept of systemic risk gives rise to several prominent ethical issues. To what extent do financial agents have a moral duty to limit their contributions to systemic risk? It could be argued that financial transactions always carry risk and that this is “part of the game”. But the important point about systemic risk is that financial crises have negative effects on third parties (so-called externalities). This constitutes a prima facie case for a duty of precaution on the part of financial agents, based on the social responsibility to avoid causing unnecessary harm (James 2017, Linarelli 2017). In cases where precaution is impossible, one could add a related duty of rectification or compensation to the victims of the harm (Endörfer 2022). It is, however, a matter of philosophical dispute whether finance professionals can be held morally responsible for these harms (de Bruin 2018, Moggia 2021).

Two factors determine how much an agent’s activity contributes to systemic risk (Brunnermeier & Oehmke 2013, Smaga 2014). The first is financial risk of the agent’s activity in the traditional sense, i.e., the probability and size of the potential losses for that particular agent. A duty of precaution may here be taken to imply, e.g., stricter requirements on capital and liquidity reserves (roughly, the money that the agents must keep in their coffers for emergency situations) (Admati & Hellwig 2013). The second factor is the agent’s place in the financial system, which typically is measured by its interconnectedness with—and thereby potential for cascading effects upon—other agents. This factor indicates that the duty of precaution is stronger for financial agents that are “systemically important” or, as the saying goes, “too-big-to-fail” institutions (Stiglitz 2009).

As an alternative to the reasoning above, one may argue that the duty of precaution is more properly located on the collective, i.e., political level (James 2012, 2017). We return to this suggestion below (in section 5.1 ).

Even in normal times, people with very low income or wealth have hardly any access to basic financial services. Commercial banks have little to gain from offering such services to them; there is an elevated risk of loan losses (since the poor lack collateral) and it is costly to administer a large amount of very small loans (Armendáriz & Morduch 2010). Moreover, there will likely be cases where some bank officers discriminate against underprivileged groups, even where extensive legal protection is in place. An initiative that seeks to remedy these problems is “microfinance”, that is, the extension of financial services, such as lending and saving, to poor people who are otherwise “unbanked”. The initiative started in some of the poorest countries of the world, such as Bangladesh and India.

The justifications offered for microfinance are similar to the justifications offered for development aid. A popular justification holds that affluent people have a duty of assistance towards the poor, and microfinance is thought to be a particularly efficient way to alleviate poverty (Yunus 1998, 2007). But is this correct? Judging from the growing number of empirical “impact studies”, it seems more correct to say that microfinance is sometimes helpful, but at other times can be either ineffective or have negative side-effects (Hudon & Sandberg 2013, Roodman 2012). Another justification holds that there is a basic human right to subsistence, and that this includes a right to savings and credit (Hudon 2009, Meyer 2018). But critics argue that the framework of human rights is not a good fit for financial services that come with both benefits and challenges (Gershman & Morduch 2015, Sorell 2015).

Microfinance is of course different from development aid in that it involves commercial banking relations. This invites the familiar political debate of state- versus market-based support. Proponents of microfinance argue that traditional state-led development projects have been too rigid and corrupt, whereas market-based initiatives are more flexible and help people to help themselves (Armendáriz & Morduch 2010, Yunus 2007). According to critics, however, it is the other way around: Markets will tend to breed greed and inequality, whereas real development is created by large-scale investments in education and infrastructure (Bateman 2010, H. Weber 2004).

In recent years, the microfinance industry has witnessed several “ethical scandals” that seemingly testify to the risk of market excesses. Reports have indicated that interest rates on microloans average at 20–30% per annum, and can sometimes be in excess of 100%, which is much higher than the rates for non-poor borrowers. This raises questions about usury (Hudon & Ashta 2013; Rosenberg, Gonzalez, & Narain 2009). However, some suggest a defense of “second best”, or last resort, when other sources of aid or cheaper credit are unavailable (Sandberg 2012). Microfinance institutions have also been accused of using coercive lending techniques and forceful loan recovery practices (Dichter & Harper (eds) 2007; Priyadarshee & Ghalib 2012). This raises questions about the ethical justifiability of commercial activity directed at the desperately poor, because very poor customers may have no viable alternative to accepting deals that are both unfair and exploitative (Arnold & Valentin 2013, Hudon & Sandberg 2013).

Socially responsible investment refers to the emerging practice whereby financial agents give weight to putatively ethical, social or environmental considerations in investment decisions—e.g., decisions about what bonds or stocks to buy or sell, or how to engage with the companies in one’s portfolio. This is sometimes part of a strictly profit-driven investment philosophy, based on the assumption that companies with superior social performance also have superior financial performance (Richardson & Cragg 2010). But more commonly, it is perceived as an alternative to mainstream investment. The background argument here is that market pricing mechanisms, and financial markets in particular, seem to be unable to promote sufficient levels of social and environmental responsibility in firms. Even though there is widespread social agreement on the evils of sweatshop labor and environmental degradation, for instance, mainstream investors are still financing enterprises that sustain such unjustifiable practices. Therefore, there is a need for a new kind of investor with a stronger sense of social responsibility (Sandberg 2008, Cowton & Sandberg 2012).

The simplest and most common approach among these alternative investors is to avoid investments in companies that are perceived to be ethically problematic. This is typically justified from a deontological idea to the effect that it is wrong to invest in someone else’s wrongdoing (Irvine 1987b, Langtry 2002, Larmer 1997). There are at least three interpretations of such moral “taint”: (1) the view that it is wrong in itself to profit from others’ wrongdoings, or to benefit from other people’s suffering; (2) the view that it is wrong to harm others, or also to facilitate harm to other; or (3) the view that there is a form of expressive or symbolic wrongdoing involved in “morally supporting” or “accepting” wrongful activities.

The deontological perspective above has been criticized for being too black-and-white. On the one hand, it seems difficult to find any investment opportunity that is completely “pure” or devoid of possible moral taint (Kolers 2001). On the other hand, the relationship between the investor and the investee is not as direct as one may think. To the extent that investors buy and sell shares on the stock market, they are not engaging with the underlying companies but rather with other investors. The only way in which such transactions could benefit the companies would be through movements in the share price (which determines the companies’ so-called cost of capital), but it is extremely unlikely that a group of ethical investors can significantly affect that price. After all, the raison d’être of stock exchanges is exactly to create markets that are sufficiently liquid to maintain stable prices (Haigh & Hazelton 2004, Hudson 2005). In response to this, the deontologist could appeal to some notion of universalizability or collective responsibility: perhaps the right question to ask is not “what happens if I do this?” but instead “what happens if we all do this?”. However, such more complicated philosophical positions have problems of their own (see also rule consequentialism and collective responsibility )

A rival perspective on socially responsible investment is the (more straightforward) consequentialist idea that investors’ duty towards society consists in using their financial powers to promote positive societal goods, such as social justice and environmental sustainability. This perspective is typically taken to prefer more progressive investment practices, such as pushing management to adopt more ambitious social policies and/or seeking out environmentally friendly technology firms (Mackenzie 1997, Sandberg 2008). Of course, the flip side of such practices, which may explain why they are less common in the market, is that they invite greater financial risks (Sandberg 2011). It remains an open question whether socially responsible investment will grow enough in size to make financial markets a force for societal change.

Recent work has started exploring whether concrete sustainable finance policies (such as those suggested by the European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan) will generate sufficient funds to pay for climate change mitigation and adaptation, based as they are on policies of information provision only (De Bruin 2023).

5. Political Philosophy

Discussions about the social responsibility of finance are obviously premised on the observation that the financial system forms a central infrastructure of modern economies and societies. As we noted at the outset, it is important to see that the system contains both private elements (such as commercial banks, insurance companies, and investment funds) and public elements (such as central banks and regulatory bodies). However, issues concerning the proper balance between these elements, especially the proper role and reach of the state, are perennially recurrent in both popular and philosophical debates.

The financial system and the provision of money indeed raise a number of questions that connect it to the “big questions” of political philosophy: including questions of democracy, justice, and legitimacy, at both the national and global levels (on the history of political thinking about money see Eich 2019, 2020, 2022; Ingham 2004, 2019; Martin 2013). The discussions around finance in political philosophy can be grouped under three broad areas: financialization and democracy; finance, money and domestic justice; and finance and global justice. We consider these now in turn.

Many of the questions political philosophy raises about finance have to do with “financialization”. The phenomenon of “financialization”, whereby the economic system has become characterized by the increasing dominance of finance capital and by systems of financial intermediation (Ertürk et al. 2008; Davis 2011; Engelen et al. 2011; Palley 2013), is of potentially substantial normative significance in a number of regards. A related normative concern is the potential growth in political power of the financial sector, which may be seen as a threat to democratic politics.

These worries are, in effect, an amplification of familiar concerns about the “structural power” or “structural constraints” of capital, whereby capitalist investors are able to reduce the freedom of action of democratic governments by threatening “investment strikes” when their preferred political options are not pursued (see Lindblom 1977, 1982; Przeworski & Wallerstein 1988; Cohen 1989; B. Barry 2002; Christiano 2010, 2012; Furendal & O’Neill 2022). To take one recent version of these worries, Stuart White argues that a republican commitment to popular sovereignty is in significant tension with the acceptance of an economic system where important choices about investment, and hence the direction of development of the economy, are under the control of financial interests (White 2011).

In many such debates, the fault-line seems to be the traditional one between those who favor social coordination by free markets, and hence strict limitations on state activities, and those who favor democratic politics, and hence strict limitations on markets (without denying that there can be intermediate positions). But the current financial system is not a pure creature of the free market. In the financial system that we currently see, the principle that individuals are to be held financially accountable for their actions, and that they will therefore be “disciplined” by markets, is patchy at best. One major issue, discussed above, is the problem of banks that are so large and interconnected that their failure would risk taking down the whole financial system—hence, they can anticipate that they will be bailed out by tax-payers’ money, which creates a huge “moral hazard” problem (e.g., Pistor 2013, 2017). In addition, current legal systems find it difficult to impose accountability for complex processes of divided labor, which is why there were very few legal remedies after the financial crisis of 2008 (e.g., Reiff 2017).

The lack of accountability intensifies worries about the power relations between democratic politicians and individuals or corporations in the financial realm. One question is whether we can even apply our standard concept of democracy to societies that have the kinds of financial systems we see today. We may ask whether societies that are highly financialized can ever be true democracies, or whether they are more likely to be “post-democracies” (Crouch 2004). For example, states with high levels of sovereign debt will need to consider the reaction of financial markets in every significant policy decision (see, e.g., Streeck 2013 [2014], see also Klein 2020) Moreover “revolving doors” between private financial institutions and supervising authorities impact on the ability of public officials to hold financial agents accountable. This is similar to the problems of conflicts of interest raised above (see sections 2 and 4.2.2 ). If financial contracts become a central, or maybe even the most central, form of social relations (Lazzarato 2012), this may create an incompatibility with the equal standing of citizens, irrespective of financial position, that should be the basis of a democratic society and its public sphere of deliberation (see also Bennett 2020 from an epistemic perspective).

While finance has, over long stretches of history, been rather strictly regulated, there has been a reversed trend towards deregulation since roughly the 1970s. After the financial crisis of 2008, there have been many calls for reregulation. Proposals include higher capital ratios in banks (Admati & Hellwig 2013), a return to the separation of commercial banking from speculative finance, as had been the case, in the US, during the period when the Glass-Steagall Act was in place (Kay 2015), or a financial transaction tax (Wollner 2014). However, given that the financial system is a global system, one controversial question is whether regulatory steps by single countries would have any effect other than capital flight.

When it comes to domestic social justice, the central question relating to the finance system concerns the ways in which the realization of justice can be helped or hindered by how the financial system is organized.

A first question here, already touched upon in the discussion about microfinance above ( section 4.3.2 ), concerns the status of citizens as participants in financial markets. Should they all have a right to certain financial services such as a bank account or certain forms of loans, because credit should be seen as a primary good in capitalist economies (see, e.g., Hudon 2009, Sorell 2015, Meyer 2018)? More broadly, how does the pattern of access to credit affect the distribution of freedom and unfreedom within society? (see Dietsch 2021; Preiss 2021). These are not only issues for very poor countries, but also for richer countries with high economic inequality, where it becomes a question of domestic justice. In some countries all residents have the right to open a basic bank account (see bank accounts in the EU in Other Internet Resources ). For others this is not the case. It has been argued that not having access to basic financial services creates an unfairness, because it drives poorer individuals into a cash economy in which they are more vulnerable to exploitative lenders, and in which it is more difficult to build up savings (e.g., Baradaran 2015). Hence, it has been suggested either to regulate banking services for individuals more strictly (e.g., Herzog 2017a), to consider various forms of household debt relief (Persad 2018), or to offer a public banking service, e.g., run by the postal office, which offers basic services at affordable costs (Baradaran 2015).

Secondly, financialization may also have more direct effects on socio-economic inequality. Those with managerial positions within the financial sector are disproportionately represented among the very top end of the income distribution, and so the growth of inequality can in part be explained by the growth in the financial sector itself (Piketty 2014). There may also be an effect on social norms, whereby the “hypermeritocratic” norms of the financial sector have played a part in increasing social tolerance for inequality in society more broadly (Piketty 2014: 265, 2020; see also O’Neill 2017, 2021). As Dietsch et al. point out, the process of increasing financialization within the economies of the advanced industrial societies has been encouraged by the actions of central banks over recent decades, and so the issue of financialization also connects closely to questions regarding the justice and legitimacy of central banks and monetary policy (Dietsch, Claveau, & Fontan 2016, 2018; see also Jacobs & King 2016).

Thirdly, many debates about the relation between distributive justice and the financial system revolve around the market for mortgages, because for many individuals, a house is the single largest item for which they need to take out a loan, and their mortgage their main point of interaction with the financial system. This means that the question of who has access to mortgage loans and at what price can have a major impact on the overall distribution of income and wealth. In addition, it has an impact on how financial risks are distributed in society. Highly indebted individuals are more vulnerable when it comes to ups and downs either in their personal lives (e.g., illness, loss of job, divorce) or in the economy as a whole (e.g., economic slumps) (Mian & Sufi 2014). The danger here is that existing inequalities—which many theories of justice would describe as unjust—are reinforced even further (Herzog 2017a).

Here, however, a question about the institutional division of labor arises: which goals of distributive justice should be achieved within markets—and specifically, within financial markets—and which ones by other means, for example through taxation and redistribution? The latter has been the standard approach used by many welfare systems: the idea being to let markets run their course, and then to achieve the desired patterns of distribution by taxation and redistribution. If one remains within that paradigm, questions arise about whether the financial sector should be taxed more highly. In contrast, the approach of “pre-distribution” (Hacker 2011; O’Neill & Williamson 2012; O’Neill 202), or what Dietsch calls “process redistribution” (2010), is to design the rules of the economic game such that they contribute to bringing about the distributive pattern that is seen as just. This could, for example, mean regulating banking services and credit markets in ways that reduce inequality, for example by imposing regulations on payday lenders and banks, so that poor individuals are protected from falling into a spiral of ever higher debt. A more radical view could be to see the financial problems faced by such individuals as being caused by more general structural injustices the solution of which does not necessarily require interventions with the financial industry, but rather more general redistributive (or predistributive) policies.

Money creation: Another alternative theoretical approach is to integrate distributive concerns into monetary policy, i.e., when it comes to the creation of money. So far, central banks have focused on the stability of currencies and, in some cases, levels of employment. This technical focus, together with the risk that politicians might abuse monetary policy to try to boost the economy before elections, have been used in arguments for putting the control of the money supply into the hands of technical experts, removing monetary policy from democratic politics. But after the financial crisis of 2008, many central banks have used unconventional measures, such as “quantitative easing”, which had strongly regressive effects, favoring the owners of stocks or of landed property (Fontan et al. 2016, Dietsch 2017); they did not take into account other societal goals, e.g., the financing of green energy, either. This raises new questions of justice: are such measures justified if their declared aim is to move the economy out of a slump, which presumably also helps disadvantaged individuals (Haldane 2014)? Would other measures, for instance “helicopter money” that is distributed to all citizens, have been a better alternative? And if such measures are used, is it still appropriate to think of central banks as institutions in which nothing but technical expertise is required, or should there be some form of accountability to society? (Fontan, Claveau, & Dietsch 2016; Dietsch 2017; Riles 2018; see also Tucker 2018; van ’t Klooster 2020; James & Hockett 2020, Downey 2021). [ 2 ]

We have already discussed the general issue of the ontological status of money ( section 1.1 above). But there are also significant questions in political philosophy regarding the question of where, and by what sorts of institutions, should the money supply be controlled. One complicating factor here is the extensive disagreement about the institutional basis of money creation, as described above. One strand of the credit theory of money emphasizes that in today’s world, money creation is a process in which commercial banks play a significant role. These banks in effect create new money when they make new loans to individual or business customers (see McLeay, Radia, & Thomas 2014; see also Palley 1996; Ryan-Collins et al. 2012; Werner 2014a,b). James Tobin refers to commercial bank-created money, in an evocative if now dated image as “fountain pen money”, that is, money created with the swish of the bank manager’s fountain pen (Tobin 1963).

However, the relationship between private commercial banks and the central bank is a complicated one, such that we might best think of money creation as a matter involving a kind of hybrid public-private partnership. Hockett and Omarova refer to this relationship as constituting a “finance franchise”, with private banks being granted on a “franchise” basis the money-creating powers of the sovereign monetary authority, while van ’t Klooster describes this relation between the public and private as constituting a “hybrid monetary constitution” (Hockett & Omarova 2017; van ’t Klooster 2017; see also Bell 2001). In this hybrid public-private monetary system, it is true that private commercial banks create money, but they nevertheless do so in a way that involves being regulated and subject to the authority of the central bank within each monetary jurisdiction, with that central bank also acting as “lender of last resort” (Bagehot 1873) when inter-bank lending dries up. [ 3 ]

When the curious public-private nature of money creation is brought into focus, it is not surprising that there should exist views advocating a shift away from this hybrid monetary constitution, either in the direction of a fully public option, or a fully private system of money creation.

Advocates of fully public banking envisage a system in which private banks are stripped of their authority to create new money, and where instead the money supply is directly controlled either by the government or by some other state agency; for example by the central bank lending directly to firms and households. Such a position can be defended on a number of normative grounds: that a public option would allow for greater financial stability, that a fully public system of money creation would allow a smoother transmission of democratic decisions regarding economic governance; or simply because of the consequences of such a system with regards to socioeconomic inequality and environmental sustainability (see Jackson & Dyson 2012; Wolf 2014a,b; Lainà 2015; Dyson, Hodgson, & van Lerven 2016a,b; Ingham, Coutts, & Konzelmann 2016; Dow 2016; Wodruff 2019; van’t Klooster 2019, Mellor 2019, Dietsch 2021; for commentary and criticism see Goodhart & Jensen 2015; Fontana & Sawyer 2016, Larue et al. 2020).

In stark contrast, a number of libertarian authors have defended the view that the central bank should have no role in money creation, with the money supply being entirely a matter for private suppliers (and with the consumers of money able to choose between different rival suppliers), under a system of “free banking” (e.g., Simons 1936; Friedman 1962; von Hayek 1978; Selgin 1988). Advocacy of private money creation has received a more recent stimulus with the rise of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies, with some of Bitcoin’s advocates drawing on similar libertarian arguments to those offered by Hayek and Selgin (see Golumbia 2016, Robison 2022). One can also mention the “alternative currencies” movement here which defends private money creation on entirely different grounds, most often by appeal to the value of community (see Larue 2022, Larue et al. 2022).

Finally, a number of issues relate questions about finance to questions about global justice. The debate about global justice (see also global justice ) has weighed the pros and cons of “statist” and “cosmopolitan” approaches, that is, approaches to justice that would focus on the nation state (maybe with some additional duties of beneficence to the globally poor) or on the global scale. The financial system is one of the most globalized systems of social interaction that currently exist, and global entanglements are hard to deny (e.g., Valentini 2011: 195–8). The question thus is whether this creates duties of justice on the financial system, and if so, whether it fulfills these duties, i.e., whether it contributes to making the world more globally just, or whether it tends in the opposite direction (or whether it is neutral).

There are a number of institutions, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that constitute a rudimentary global order of finance. Arguably, many countries, especially poorer ones, cannot reasonably opt out of the rules established by these institutions (e.g., Hassoun 2012, Krishnamurthy 2014). It might therefore appear to be required by justice that these institutions be governed in a way that represents the interests of all countries. But because of historical path-dependencies, and because a large part of their budget comes from Western countries, the governance structures are strongly biased in their favor (for example, the US can veto all important decisions in the IMF). Miller (2010: 134–41) has described this situation as “indirect financial rule” by the US (see also Herzog 2021).

An issue worth noting in this context is the fact that the US dollar, and to a lesser degree the Euro, function as de facto global currencies, with a large part of global trade being conducted in these currencies (e.g., Mehrling 2011, Eichengreen 2011). This allows the issuing countries to run a current account deficit, which amounts to a redistribution from poorer to richer countries for which compensation might be owed (Reddy 2005: 224–5). This fact also raises questions about the distribution of power in the global sphere, which has often been criticized as favoring Western countries (e.g., Gulati 1980, United Nations 2009). However, global financial markets serve not only to finance trade in goods and services; there are also questions about fluctuations in these markets that result exclusively from speculations (see also sect.1.4.3 above). Such fluctuations can disproportionately harm poorer countries, which are more vulnerable to movements of capital or rapid changes in commodity prices. Hence, an old proposal that has recently been revived and defended from a perspective of global justice is that of a “Tobin tax” (Tobin 1978), which would tax financial transactions and thereby reduce volatility in international financial markets (Reddy 2005, Wollner 2014).

A second feature of the current global order that has been criticized from a perspective of justice is the “borrowing privilege”. As Pogge describes (e.g., 2008: chap. 4), the governments of countries can borrow on international financial markets, no matter whether they have democratic legitimacy or not. This means that rogue governments can finance themselves by incurring debts that future generations of citizens will have to repay.

Sovereign debt raises a number of questions that are related to global justice. Usually, the contracts on which they are based are considered as absolutely binding (e.g., Suttle 2016), which can threaten national sovereignty (Dietsch 2011), and raises questions of the moral and political responsibilities both of citizens of debtor nations, and of creditor countries themselves (Wiedenbrüg, 2018a, 2018b). These problems obtain in particular with regard to what has been called “odious” debt (Sack 1927, Howse 2007, Dimitriu 2015, King 2016): cases in which government officials sign debt contracts in order to enrich themselves, with lenders being aware of this fact. Such cases have been at the center of calls for a jubilee for indebted nations. At the moment, there are no binding international rules for how to deal with sovereign bankruptcy, and countries in financial distress have no systematic possibility of making their claims heard, which is problematic from a perspective of justice (e.g., Palley 2003; Reddy 2005: 26–33; Herman 2007; C. Barry & Tomitova 2007; Wollner 2018). The IMF, which often supports countries in restructuring sovereign debt, has often made this support conditional upon certain requirements about rearranging the economic structures of a country (for a discussion of the permissibility of such practices see C. Barry 2011).

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the issue of financial regulation has a global dimension in the sense that capital is mobile across national boundaries, creating the threats to democracy described above. This fact makes it difficult for individual countries, especially smaller ones, to install the more rigid financial regulations that would be required from a perspective of justice. Just as with many other questions of global justice (see, e.g., Dietsch 2015 on taxation), we seem to see a failure of coordination between countries, which leads to a “race to the bottom”. Making global financial institutions more just is therefore likely to require significant levels of international cooperation.

Abreu, Dilip and Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2003, “Bubbles and Crashes”, Econometrica , 71(1): 173–204. doi:10.1111/1468-0262.00393
Admati, Anat and Martin Hellwig, 2013, The Bankers’ New Clothes. What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Andersson, Alexander and Joakim Sandberg, 2019, “Moralising Economic Desert,” in Christopher Cowton, James Dempsey, and Tom Sorell (eds.), Business Ethics After the Global Financial Crisis: Lessons from the Crash , New York: Routledge, pp. 165–184.
Angel, James J. and Douglas M. McCabe, 2009, “The Ethics of Speculation”, Journal of Business Ethics , 90(supp. 3): 277–286. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0421-5
Aquinas, Summa Theologica , Fathers of the English Dominican Province, trans. 5 vols. Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1981.
Aristotle, Politics , in The Complete Works of Aristotle , J. Barnes (ed.), Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. [ Politics available online ]
Armendáriz, Beatriz and Jonathan Morduch, 2010, The Economics of Microfinance , second edition, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Arnold, Denis G. and Andres Valentin, 2013, “Corporate Social Responsibility at the Base of the Pyramid”, Journal of Business Research , 66(10): 1904–1914. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.012
Ayub, Muhammad, 2007, Understanding Islamic Finance , Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Bagehot, Walter, 1873 [1999]. Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market , New York: Wiley Investment Classics.
Baradaran, Mehrsa, 2015, How the Other Half Banks. Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Barry, Brian, 2002, “Capitalists Rule Ok? Some Puzzles About Power”, Politics, Philosophy & Economics , 1(2): 155–184. doi:10.1177/1470594X02001002001
Barry, Christian, 2011, “Human Rights Conditionality in Sovereign Debt Relief”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 19(3): 282–305. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9760.2011.00395.x
Barry, Christian and Lydia Tomitova, 2007, “Fairness in Sovereign Debt”, Ethics & International Affairs , 21(S1): 41–79. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2007.00084.x
Bateman, Milford, 2010, Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? London: Zed Books.
Bell, Stephanie, 2001, “The Role of the State and the Hierarchy of Money”, Cambridge Journal of Economics , 25(2): 149–163. doi:10.1093/cje/25.2.149
Bennett, Michael, 2020, “An Epistemic Argument for an Egalitarian Public Sphere”, Episteme , first online 26 October 2020. doi:10.1017/epi.2020.42
Bentham, Jeremy, 1787, Defence of Usury , London: Payne and Foss.
Bertolotti, Tommaso and Lorenzo Magnani, 2017, “Contemporary Finance as a Critical Cognitive Niche: An Epistemological Outlook on the Uncertain Effects of Contrasting Uncertainty”, Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics , 34(2): 129–150. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49872-0_8
Birnie, Arthur, 1952, The History and Ethics of Interest , London: William Hodge & Company.
Boatright, John Raymond (ed.), 2010, Finance Ethics: Critical Issues in Theory and Practice , Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9781118266298
–––, 2014, Ethics in Finance , third edition, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Bogle, John C., 2012, The Clash of Cultures: Investment vs. Speculation , Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Booth, Anthony and Boudewijn de Bruin, 2021, “Stakes Sensitivity and Credit Rating: A New Challenge for Regulators”, Journal of Business Ethics , 169: 169–179. doi:10.1007/s10551-019-04260-2
Borna, Shaheen and James Lowry, 1987, “Gambling and Speculation”, Journal of Business Ethics , 6(3): 219–224. doi:10.1007/BF00382867
Bowie, Norman E., 1999, Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective , Oxford: Blackwell.
Brav, Alon, J.B. Heaton, and Alexander Rosenberg, 2004, “The Rational-Behavioral Debate in Financial Economics”, Journal of Economic Methodology , 11(4): 393–409. doi:10.1080/1350178042000177978
Brennan, Jason, 2021, Why It’s OK to Want to Be Rich , New York: Routledge.
Brunnermeier, Markus K. and Martin Oehmke, 2013, “Bubbles, Financial Crises, and Systemic Risk”, in Handbook of the Economics of Finance , George M. Constantinides, Milton Harris, and Rene M. Stulz (eds), Amsterdam: Elsevier, Volume 2, Part B: 1221–1288. doi:10.1016/B978-0-44-459406-8.00018-4
Brynjarsdóttir, Eyja, 2018, The Reality of Money: The Metaphysics of Financial Value , London: Rowman & Littlefield International.
Cetina, Karin Knorr and Alex Preda (eds.), 2012, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance , first edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199590162.001.0001
Christiano, Thomas, 2010, “The Uneasy Relationship between Democracy and Capital”, Social Philosophy and Policy , 27(1): 195–217. doi:10.1017/S0265052509990082
–––, 2012, “Money and Politics”, in David Estlund (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 241–257. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376692.013.0013
Cohen, Joshua, 1989, “The Economic Basis of Deliberative Democracy”, Social Philosophy and Policy , 6(2): 25–50. doi:10.1017/S0265052500000625
Collier, Charles W., 2011, “An Inefficient Truth”, Critical Review , 23(1–2), 29–71. doi:10.1080/08913811.2011.574469
Cowton, Christopher J. and Joakim Sandberg, 2012, “Socially Responsible Investment”, in R. Chadwick (ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics , second edition, vol. 4, San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 142–151. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-373932-2.00086-7
Crouch, Colin, 2004, Post-Democracy , Cambridge: Polity.
Dallas, Lynne L., 2012, “Short-Termism, the Financial Crisis, and Corporate Governance”, Journal of Corporation Law , 37: 265–364.
Davis, Gerald F., 2011, Managed by the Markets. How Finance Re-Shaped America , New York: Oxford University Press.
de Bruin, Boudewijn, 2013, “Epistemic Integrity in Accounting: Accountants as Justifiers in Joint Epistemic Agents”, Business & Professional Ethics Journal , 32(2): 109–130. doi:10.5840/bpej2013321/25
–––, 2014a, “Epistemically Virtuous Risk Management: Financial Due Diligence and Uncovering the Madoff Fraud”, in Christoph Luetge and Johanna Jauernig (eds.), Business Ethics and Risk Management , Dordrecht: Springer, 27–42. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7441-4_3
–––, 2014b, “Ethics Management in Banking and Finance”, in Nicholas Morris and David Vines (eds.), Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 255–276. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712220.003.0012
–––, 2015, Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis. Why Incompetence is Worse than Greed , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
–––, 2016, “Pledging Integrity: Oaths as Forms of Business Management”, Journal of Business Ethics , 136(1): 23–42. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2504-1
–––, 2017, “Information as a Condition of Justice in Financial Markets: The Regulation of Credit-Rating Agencies”, in Herzog 2017b: 250–270. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.003.0011
–––, 2018, “Moral Responsibility for Large-Scale Events: The Difference between Climate Change and Economic Crises”, Midwest Studies in Philosophy , 42(1): 191–212. doi:10.1111/misp.12090
–––, 2021, “Epistemic Injustice in Finance”, Topoi , 40(4): 755–763. doi:10.1007/s11245-019-09677-y
–––, 2023, “Climate Change and Reflexive Law: The EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan”, in Joakim Sandberg & Lisa Warenski (eds.), The Philosophy of Money and Finance , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
de Bruin, Boudewijn and Christian Walter, 2017, “Research Habits in Financial Modelling: The Case of Non-normativity of Market Returns in the 1970s and the 1980s”, in Ippoliti and Chen 2017: 73–93. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49872-0_5
Dichter, Thomas W. and Malcolm Harper (eds.), 2007, What’s Wrong with Microfinance? Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
Dietsch, Peter, 2010, “The Market, Competition, and Equality”, Politics, Philosophy & Economics , 9(2): 213–244. doi:10.1177/1470594X09359148
–––, 2011, “Rethinking Sovereignty in International Fiscal Policy”, Review of International Studies , 37(5): 2107–2120. doi:10.1017/S0260210511000349
–––, 2015, Catching Capital: The Ethics of Tax Competition , New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190251512.001.0001
–––, 2017, “Normative Dimensions of Central Banking: How the Guardians of Financial Markets Affect Justice”, in Herzog 2017b: 231–249. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.003.0010
–––, 2021, “Money creation, debt, and justice”, Politics, Philosophy and Economics , 20(2): 151–179.
Dietsch, Peter, François Claveau, and Clément Fontan, 2016, “Central banking and inequality: taking off the blinders”, Politics, Philosophy & Economics , 15(4): 319–357.
Dietsch, Peter, François Claveau, and Clément Fontan, 2018, Do Central Banks Serve the People? Oxford: Polity Press.
Dilworth, John B., 1994, “The Ethical Importance of Conflicts of Interest: Accounting and Finance Examples”, Business & Professional Ethics Journal , 13(1): 25–40.
Dimitriu, Cristian, 2015, “Odious Debts: A Moral Account”, Jurisprudence , 6(3): 470–491. doi:10.1080/20403313.2015.1065646
Downey, Leah, 2021, “Delegation in Democracy: A Temporal Analysis”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 29(3): 305–29. doi: 10.1111/jopp.12234
Douglas, Alexander X., 2016, The Philosophy of Debt , New York: Routledge.
Dow, Sheila, 2016, “The Political Economy of Monetary Reform”, Cambridge Journal of Economics , 40(5): 1363–1376. doi:10.1093/cje/bew013
Duska, Ronald F. and James J. Clarke, 2002, “Ethical Issues in Financial Services”, in Norman E. Bowie (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics , Oxford: Blackwell, 206–224.
Dyson, Ben, Graham Hodgson, and Frank van Lerven, 2016a, Sovereign Money: an Introduction , London: Positive Money.
–––, 2016b, “A Response to Critiques of ‘Full Reserve Banking’”, Cambridge Journal of Economics , 40(5): 1351–1361. doi:10.1093/cje/bew036
Egidi, Massimo, 2014, “The Economics of Wishful Thinking and the Adventures of Rationality”, Mind and Society , 13(1): 9–27. doi:10.1007/s11299-014-0146-8
Eich, Stefan, 2019, “Between Justice and Accumulation: Aristotle on Currency and Reciprocity”, Political Theory , 47(3): 363–90. doi: 10.1177/0090591718802634
–––, 2020, “John Locke and the Politics of Monetary Depoliticization”, Modern Intellectual History , 17(1): 1–28. doi: 10.1017/S1479244318000185
–––, 2022, The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Eichengreen, Barry J., 2011, Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and the Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Endörfer, Richard, 2022, Weapons of Mass Destruction: Financial Crises from a Philosophical Perspective , Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Endörfer, Richard and Boudewijn de Bruin, 2019, “Freedom in Finance: The Importance of Epistemic Virtues and Interlucent Communication”, in Business Ethics after the Global Financial Crisis: Lessons from the Crash , Christopher Cowton, James Demsey and Tom Sorell (eds.), New York: Routledge, 104–130.
Engelen, Peter-Jan and Luc Van Liedekerke, 2010, “Insider Trading”, in Boatright 2010: 199–221. doi:10.1002/9781118266298.ch11
Engelen, Ewald, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams, 2011, After the Great Complacence: Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589081.001.0001
Ertürk, Ismail, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, and Karel Williams (eds.), 2008, Financialization at Work: Key Texts and Commentary , London: Routledge.
Fabozzi, Frank J., 2002, The Handbook of Financial Instruments , Hoboken: Wiley.
Farmer, J. Doyne and John Geanakoplos, 2009, “The Virtues and Vices of Equilibrium and the Future of Financial Economics”, Complexity , 14(3): 11–38. doi:10.1002/cplx.20261
Ferguson, Niall, 2008, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World , London: Penguin.
Flew, Antony, 1976, “The Profit Motive”, Ethics , 86(4): 312–322. doi:10.1086/292007
Fontan, Clément, François Claveau, and Peter Dietsch, 2016, “Central Banking and Inequalities: Taking off the Blinders”, Politics, Philosophy & Economics , 15(4): 319–357. doi:10.1177/1470594X16651056
Fontana, Giuseppe and Malcolm Sawyer, 2016, “Full Reserve Banking: More ‘Cranks’ Than ‘Brave Heretics’”, Cambridge Journal of Economics , 40(5): 1333–1350. doi:10.1093/cje/bew016
Friedman, Milton, 1962, “Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?” in Leland B. Yeager (ed.), In Search of a Monetary Constitution , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 219–43.
Furendal, Markus and Martin O’Neill, 2022, “Work, Justice, and Collective Capital Institutions: Revisiting Rudolf Meidner and the Case for Wage-Earner Funds”, Journal of Applied Philosophy , first online 24 November 2022. doi: 10.1111/japp.12631
Frydman, Roman and Michael D. Goldberg, 2013, “Fallibility in Formal Macroeconomics and Finance Theory”, Journal of Economic Methodology , 20(4): 386–396. doi:10.1080/1350178X.2013.859425
Gershman, John and Jonathan Morduch, 2015, “Credit Is Not a Right”, in Microfinance, Rights and Global Justice , Tom Sorell and Luis Cabrera (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 14–26. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316275634.002
Golumbia, David, 2016, The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism , Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Goodhart, Charles A.E. and Meinhard A. Jensen, 2015, “Currency School versus Banking School: an Ongoing Confrontation”, Economic Thought , 4(2): 20–31. [ Goodhart & Jensen 2015 available online ]
Graafland, Johan J., 2010, “Calvin’s Restrictions on Interest: Guidelines for the Credit Crisis”, Journal of Business Ethics , 96(2): 233–248. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0462-9
Graafland, Johan J. and Bert W. van de Ven, 2011, “The Credit Crisis and the Moral Responsibility of Professionals in Finance”, Journal of Business Ethics , 103(4): 605–619. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-0883-0
Graeber, David, 2011, Debt: The First 5000 Years , New York: Melville House.
Guala, Francesco, 2016, Understanding Institutions: The Science and Philosophy of Living Together , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gulati, Iqbal, 1980, International Monetary Development and the Third World: A Proposal to Redress the Balance , New Dehli: Orient Longman.
Hacker, Jacob S., 2011, “The Institutional Foundations of Middle-Class Democracy”, in Priorities for a New Political Economy: Memos to the Left , Policy Network Briefs, < Hacker 2011 available online >
Haigh, Matthew and James Hazelton, 2004, “Financial Markets: A Tool for Social Responsibility?”, Journal of Business Ethics , 52(1): 59–71. doi:10.1023/B:BUSI.0000033107.22587.0b
Haldane, Andrew G., 2014, “Unfair Shares”, Remarks given at the Bristol Festival of Ideas, May 21. [ Haldane 2014 available online ]
Hassoun, Nicole, 2012, Globalization and Global Justice: Shrinking Distances, Expanding Obligations , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511845802
Hawley, James P., Andreas G.F. Hoepner, Keith L. Johnson, Joakim Sandberg, and Edward J. Waitzer (eds.), 2014, Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139565516
Heacock, Marian V, Kendall P. Hill, and Seth C. Anderson, 1987, “Churning: An Ethical Issue in Finance”, Business and Professional Ethics Journal , 6(1): 3–17.
Hendry, John, 2013, Ethics and Finance: An Introduction , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139162494
Herman, Barry, 2007, “The Players and the Game of Sovereign Debt”, Ethics & International Affairs , 21(S1): 9–39. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2007.00083.x
Herzog, Lisa, 2017a, “What Could be Wrong with a Mortgage? Private Debt Markets from a Perspective of Structural Injustice”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 25(4): 411–434. doi:10.1111/jopp.12107
––– (ed.), 2017b, Just Financial Markets? Finance in a Just Society , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.001.0001
–––, 2019, “Professional Ethics in Banking and the Logic of ‘Integrated Situations’: Aligning Responsibilities, Recognition, and Incentives”, Journal of Business Ethics , First Online: 12 May 2017. doi:10.1007/s10551-017-3562-y
–––, 2021, “Global reserve currencies from the perspective of structural global justice: distribution and domination”, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy , 24(7): 931–953.
Hindriks, Frank, 2008, “False Models as Explanatory Engines”, Philosophy of the Social Sciences , 38(3): 334–360. doi:10.1177/0048393108319414
Hindriks, Frank & Joakim Sandberg, 2020, “Money: What It Is and What It Should Be,” Journal of Social Ontology , 6(2): 237–243.
Hindriks, Frank & Francesco Guala, 2021, “The Functions of Institutions: Etiology and Teleology,” Synthese , 198(3): 2027–2043.
Hockett, Robert C. and Saule T. Omarova, 2017, “The Finance Franchise”, Cornell Law Review , 102: 1143–1218. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2820176
Howse, Robert, 2007, “The Concept of Odious Debt in Public International Law”, (UNCTAD Discussion Papers, 185), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, July. [ Howse 2007 available online ]
Hudon, Marek, 2009, “Should Access to Credit Be a Right?” Journal of Business Ethics , 84(1): 17–28. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9670-y
Hudon, Marek and Arvind Ashta, 2013, “Fairness and Microcredit Interest Rates: from Rawlsian Principles of Justice to the Distribution of the Bargaining Range”, Business Ethics: A European Review , 22(3): 277–291. doi:10.1111/beer.12026
Hudon, Marek and Joakim Sandberg, 2013, “The Ethical Crisis in Microfinance: Issues, Findings, and Implications”, Business Ethics Quarterly , 23(4): 561–589. doi:10.5840/beq201323440
Hudson, Richard, 2005, “Ethical Investing: Ethical Investors and Managers”, Business Ethics Quarterly , 15(4): 641–657. doi:10.5840/beq200515445
Ingham, Geoffrey, 2004, The Nature of Money , Cambridge: Polity Press.
Ingham, Geoffrey, Ken Coutts, and Sue Konzelmann, 2016, “Introduction: ‘Cranks’ and ‘Brave Heretics’: Rethinking Money and Banking after the Great Financial Crisis”, Cambridge Journal of Economics , 40(5): 1247–1257. doi:10.1093/cje/bew040
Innes, A. Mitchell, 1913, “What is Money?”, Banking Law Journal , 30(5/May): 377–408.
–––, 1914, “The Credit Theory of Money”, Banking Law Journal , 31(2/February): 151–168.
Ippoliti, Emiliano and Ping Chen (eds.), 2017, Methods and Finance: A Unifying View on Finance, Mathematics, and Philosophy , (Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, 34), Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49872-0
Irvine, William B., 1987a, “Insider Trading: An Ethical Appraisal”, Business and Professional Ethics Journal , 6(4): 3–33.
–––, 1987b, “The Ethics of Investing”, Journal of Business Ethics , 6(1): 233–242. doi:10.1007/BF00382870
Jackson, Andrew and Ben Dyson, 2012, Modernising Money: Why Our Monetary System Is Broken and How It Can Be Fixed , London: Positive Money.
Jacobs, Lawrence R. and Desmond S. King, 2016, Fed Power: How Finance Wins , New York: Oxford University Press.
Jaggar, Alison M., 2002, “A Feminist Critique of the Alleged Southern Debt”, Hypatia , 17(4): 119–142. doi:10.1353/hyp.2002.0078
James, Aaron, 2012, Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199846153.001.0001
–––, 2017, “The Distinctive Significance of Systemic Risk”, Ratio Juris , 30(3): 239–258. doi:10.1111/raju.12150
James, Aaron and Robert Hockett, 2020, Money From Nothing: Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying about Debt and Learn to Love the Federal Reserve , Melville House Publishing.
Kant, Immanuel, 1785, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten , Riga: J. F. Hartknoch.
Kay, J.A., 2015, Other People’s Money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People? London: Profile Books
Keynes, John Maynard, 1936, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money , London: Palgrave
Kindleberger, Charles P., 1978, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises , London: Macmillan.
Klein, Steven, 2020, “The power of money: Critical theory, capitalism, and the politics of debt”, Constellations 27(1): 19–35.
King, Jeff, 2016, The Doctrine of Odious Debt in International Law. A Restatement , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316422809
Knapp, Georg Friedrich, 1924, The State Theory of Money , H. M. Lucas and James Bonar (trans.), London: Macmillan. Abridgment and translation of Staatliche Theorie des Geldes , Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1905.
Knight, Frank H., 1921, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit , Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Kolers, Avery, 2001, “Ethical Investing: the Permissibility of Participation”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 9(4): 435–452. doi:10.1111/1467-9760.00135
Koslowski, Peter, 2009, Ethik der Banken: Folgerungen aus der Finanzkrise , Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Krishnamurthy, Meena, 2014, “International Financial Institutions”, in Darell Moellendorf and Heather Widdows (eds.), Handbook of Global Ethics , Abingdon: Routledge, 230–250.
Kuhlmann, Meinard, 2014, “Explaining Financial Markets in Terms of Complex Systems”, Philosophy of Science , 81(5): 1117–1130. doi:10.1086/677699
Lacke, Jay C., 1996, “The Ethics of Financial Derivatives in the History of Economic Thought”, in W. Michael Hoffman, Judith Brown Kamm, Robert E. Frederick, and Edward S. Petry (eds.), The Ethics of Accounting and Finance: Trust, Responsibility, and Control , Westport: Quorum Books, pp. 165–179.
Lanchester, John, 2010, I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay , New York: Simon & Schuster
Lainà, Patrizio, 2015, “Proposals for Full-Reserve Banking: a Historical Survey from David Ricardo to Martin Wolf”, Economic Thought , 4(2): 1–19. [ Lainà 2015 available online ]
Langtry, B., 2002, “The Ethics of Shareholding”, Journal of Business Ethics , 37(2): 175–85. doi:10.1023/A:1015074116149
Larmer, Robert, 1997, “The Ethics of Investing: a Reply to William Irvine”, Journal of Business Ethics , 16(4): 397–400. doi:10.1023/A:1017944922741
Larue, Louis, 2022, “The Case Against Alternative Currencies,” Politics, Philosophy and Economics , 21(1): 75–93.
Larue, Louis, Clément Fontan & Joakim Sandberg, 2020, “The Promises and Perils of Central Bank Digital Currencies,” Revue de la Régulation , 28(2): 1–21.
Larue, Louis, Camille Meyer, Marek Hudon & Joakim Sandberg, 2022, “The Ethics of Alternative Currencies,” Business Ethics Quarterly , 32(2): 299–321.
Lawson, Gary, 1988, “The Ethics of Insider Trading”, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy , 11(3): 727–783.
Lawson, Tony, 2016, “Social Positioning and the Nature of Money,” Cambridge Journal of Economics , 40(4): 961–996.
Lazzarato, Maurizio, 2012, The Making of the Indebted Man. An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition , Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Linarelli, John, 2017, “Luck, Justice and Systemic Financial Risk”, Journal of Applied Philosophy , 34(3): 331–352. doi:10.1111/japp.12148
Lindblom, Charles E., 1977, Politics and Markets: The World’s Political Economic Systems , New York: Basic Books.
–––, 1982, “The Market as Prison”, The Journal of Politics , 44(2): 323–336. doi:10.2307/2130588
Long, John D., 1972, “The Protestant Ethic Reexamined”, Business Horizons , 15(1): 75–82. doi:10.1016/0007-6813(72)90024-9
Lydenberg, Steve, 2014, “Reason, Rationality and Fiduciary Duty”, in Hawley et al. 2014: 287–299. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139565516.027
Machan, Tibor R., 1996, “What is Morally Right with Insider Trading”, Public Affairs Quarterly , 10(2): 135–142.
Mackenzie, Craig, 1997, Ethical Investment and the Challenge of Corporate Reform , PhD Thesis, University of Bath, England. [ Mackenzie 1997 available online ]
Macleod, Harry Dunning, 1889, The Theory of Credit , London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Maitland, Ian, 2002, “The Human Face of Self-Interest”, Journal of Business Ethics , 38(1–2): 3–17. doi:10.1023/A:1015716928549
Mäki, U., 1997, “Universals and the Methodenstreit: a Re-Examination of Carl Menger’s Conception of Economics as An Exact Science”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A , 28(3), 475–495. doi:10.1016/S0039-3681(96)00011-8
Mandelbrot, Benoit, 1963, “The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices”, The Journal of Business , 36(4): 394–419. doi:10.1086/294632
Mandeville, Bernard, 1732, The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits , Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Mankiw, N. Gregory, 2009, Macroeconomics , seventh edition, New York: Worth Publishers.
Manne, Henry G., 1966, Insider Trading and the Stock Market , New York: Free Press.
Martin, Felix, 2013, Money: the Unauthorised Biography , London: The Bodley Head.
Marx, Karl, 1867, Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Oekonomie , Hamburg: Verlag von Otto Meissner.
McCall, John J., 2010, “Executive Compensation”, in Boatright 2010: 547–564. doi:10.1002/9781118266298.ch29
McCarty, Richard, 1988, “Business and Benevolence”, Business & Professional Ethics Journal , 7(2): 63–83.
McLean, Bethany and Peter Elkind, 2003, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron , New York: Portfolio.
McLeay, Michael, Amar Radia, and Ryland Thomas, 2014, “Money Creation in the Modern Economy”, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin , Q1: 14–27. [ McLeay, Radia, & Thomas 2014 available online ]
Mehrling, Perry, 2011, The New Lombard Street: How the Fed Became the Dealer of Last Resort , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Mellor, Mary, 2019, “Democratizing Finance or Democratizing Money?”, Politics and Society , 47(4): 635–650.
Menger, Carl, 1892, “On the Origins of Money”, The Economic Journal , 2(6): 239–255. doi:10.2307/2956146
Meyer, Marco, 2018, “The Right to Credit”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 26(3): 304–326. doi:10.1111/jopp.12138
Mian, Atif and Amir Sufi, 2014, House of Debt , Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Miller, Richard W., 2010, Globalizing Justice. The Ethics of Poverty and Power , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199581986.001.0001
Minsky, Hyman P., 1986, Stabilizing an Unstable Economy , New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mishkin, Frederic S., 2016, The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets , eleventh edition, New York: Pearson Education.
Modigliani, Franco and Merton H. Miller, 1958, “The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment”, The American Economic Review , 48(3): 261–297.
Moggia, Jakob, 2021, “Moral Responsibility for Systemic Financial Risk”, Journal of Business Ethics , 169(3): 461–473. doi:10.1007/s10551-019-04288-4
Moore, Jennifer, 1990, “What is Really Unethical about Insider Trading?” Journal of Business Ethics , 9(3): 171–182. doi:10.1007/BF00382642
Mussell, Helen, 2021, “The Silenced and Unsought Beneficiary: Investigating Epistemic Injustice in the Fiduciary”, Business Ethics Quarterly , 31(4): 549–571. doi:10.1017/beq.2021.4
O’Neill, Martin, 2017, “Philosophy and Public Policy after Piketty”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 25(3): 343–375. doi:10.1111/jopp.12129
–––, 2020, “Power, Predistribution, and Social Justice”, Philosophy , 95(1): 63–91. doi:10.1017/S0031819119000482
–––, 2021, “Justice, Power, and Participatory Socialism: on Piketty’s Capital and Ideology ”, Analyse & Kritik , 43(1): 89–124. doi:10.1515/auk-2021-0006
O’Neill, Martin and Thad Williamson, 2012, “The Promise of Predistribution”, Policy Network Observatory . [ O’Neill and Williamson 2012 available online ]
Palley, Thomas I., 1996, Post Keynesian Economics: Debt, Distribution and the Macro Economy , London: Macmillan.
–––, 2003, “Sovereign Debt Restructuring Proposals: A Comparative Look”, Ethics & International Affairs , 17(2): 26–33. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2003.tb00435.x
–––, 2013, Financialization: the Economics of Finance Capital Domination , New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Parkin, Michael, 2011, Economics , tenth edition, Boston: Pearson Addison-Wesley.
Passinsky, Asya, 2020, “Social Objects, Response-dependence, and Realism,” Journal of the American Philosophical Association , 6(4): 431–443
Persad, Govind, 2018, “Distributive Justice and the Relief of Household Debt”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 26(3): 327–343. doi:10.1111/jopp.12153
Pettifor, Ann, 2014, Just Money: How Society Can Break the Despotic Power of Finance , Margate: Commonwealth Publishing.
Piketty, Thomas, 2014, Capital in the Twenty-First Century , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
–––, 2020, Capital and Ideology , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pilbeam, Keith, 2010, Finance & Financial Markets , third edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pistor, Katharina, 2013, “A Legal Theory of Finance”, Journal of Comparative Economics , 41(2): 315–330. doi:10.1016/j.jce.2013.03.003
–––, 2017, “Money’s Legal Hierarchy”, in Herzog 2017b: 185–204. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.003.0008
Pogge, Thomas, 2008, World Poverty and Human Rights. Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms , second edition, Cambridge: Polity.
Preiss, Joshua, 2021, “Did We Trade Freedom for Credit? Finance, Domination, and the Political Economy of Freedom”, European Journal of Political Theory , 20(3): 486–509. doi:10.1177/1474885118806693
Priyadarshee, Anurag and Asad K. Ghalib, 2012, “Over-Indebtedness, Coercion, and Default: Causes of the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Crisis and Regulatory Implications”, Enterprise Development and Microfinance , 23(3): 185–200. doi:10.3362/1755-1986.2012.020
Przeworski, Adam and Michael Wallerstein, 1988, “Structural Dependence of the State on Capital”, American Political Science Review , 82(2): 11–29. doi:10.2307/1958056
Ragatz, Julie A. and Ronald F. Duska, 2010, “Financial Codes of Ethics”, in Boatright 2010: 297–323. doi:10.1002/9781118266298.ch16
Reddy, Sanjay G., 2005, “Developing Just Monetary Arrangements”, in Christian Barry and Thomas W. Pogge (eds.), Global Institutions and Responsibilities: Achieving Global Justice , Wiley, 218–234.
Reinhart, Carmen M. and Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Reiff, Mark R., 2017, “Punishment in the Executive Suite. Moral Responsibility, Causal Responsibility, and Financial Crime”, in Herzog 2017b: 125–153. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.003.0006
Richardson, Benjamin J., and Wes Cragg, 2010, “Being Virtuous and Prosperous: SRI’s Conflicting Goals”, Journal of Business Ethics , 92(supp. 1): 21–39. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0632-9
Rickles, Dean, 2007, “Econophysics for Philosophers”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics , 38(4): 948–978. doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2007.01.003
Riles, Annelise, 2018, Financial Citizenship: Experts, Publics, and the Politics of Central Banking , Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. [ Riles 2018 available online .
Robison, John Mark, 2022, “The Neoliberal Utopianism of Bitcoin and Modern Monetary Theory,” Utopian Studies , 33(1): 127–143.
Roodman, David, 2012, Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance , Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.
Rosenberg, R., A. Gonzalez, and S. Narain, 2009, “The New Moneylenders: Are the Poor Being Exploited by High Microcredit Interest Rates?”, CGAP Occasional Paper , 15, Washington DC: CGAP.
Rothbard, Murray N., 1983, The Mystery of Banking , New York: Richardson & Snyder.
Russell, Roseanne and Charlotte Villiers, 2017, “Gender Justice in Financial Markets”, in Herzog 2017b: 271–292. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198755661.003.0012
Ryan, John A., 1902, “The Ethics of Speculation”, International Journal of Ethics , 12(3): 335–347.
Ryan-Collins, Josh, Tony Greenham, Richard Werner, and Andrew Jackson, 2012, Where Does Money Come From? A Guide to the UK Monetary and Banking System , London: New Economics Foundation.
Sack, A.N., 1927, Les Effets des Transformations des Etats sur leurs Dettes Publiques et Autres Obligations Financières: Traité Juridique et Financier , Paris: Recueil Sirey.
Sandberg, Joakim, 2008, The Ethics of Investing. Making Money or Making a Difference? Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
–––, 2011, “Changing the World through Shareholder Activism?”, Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics , 5(1): 51–78. doi:10.5324/eip.v5i1.1733
–––, 2012, “Mega-Interest on Microcredit: Are Lenders Exploiting the Poor?”, Journal of Applied Philosophy , 29(3): 169–185. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5930.2012.00560.x
–––, 2013, “(Re-)Interpreting Fiduciary Duty to Justify Socially Responsible Investment for Pension Funds?”, Corporate Governance: An International Review , 21(5): 436–446. doi:10.1111/corg.12028
–––, 2016, “Pension Funds, Future Generations, and Fiduciary Duty”, in Institutions For Future Generations , Iñigo González-Ricoy and Axel Gosseries (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 385–399. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746959.003.0023
Schlichter, Detlev S., 2014, Paper Money Collapse: The Folly of Elastic Money , second edition, Hoboken: Wiley.
Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1954, History of Economic Analysis , London: Allen & Unwin.
Searle, John, 1995, The Construction of Social Reality , New York: The Free Press.
–––, 2010, Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195396171.001.0001
Selgin, George A., 1988, The Theory of Free Banking: Money Supply under Competitive Note Issue , Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield. [ Selgin 1988 available online ]
Shiller, Robert J., 2012, Finance and the Good Society , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Simmel, Georg, 1900, Philosophie des Geldes , Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot.
Simons, Henry C., 1936, “Rules versus Authorities in Monetary Policy”, Journal of Political Economy , 44(1): 1–30. doi:10.1086/254882
Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2010, Casino Capitalism: How the Financial Crisis Came About and What Needs to be Done Now , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smaga, Pawel, 2014, “The Concept of Systemic Risk”, SRC Special Paper No 5, Systemic Risk Center, London School of Economics and Political Science..
Smit, J.P., Filip Buekens, and Stan du Plessis, 2011, “What Is Money? an Alternative To Searle’s Institutional Facts”, Economics and Philosophy , 27(1): 1–22. doi:10.1017/S0266267110000441
–––, 2016, “Cigarettes, Dollars and Bitcoins – an Essay on the Ontology of Money”, Journal of Institutional Economics , 12(2): 327–347.
Smith, Adam, 1776, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations , London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell.
Sorell, Tom, 2015, “Is There a Human Right to Microfinance?”, in Microfinance, Rights and Global Justice , Tom Sorell and Luis Cabrera (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 27–46. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316275634.003
Sorell, Tom and John Hendry, 1994, Business Ethics , Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Soros, George, 1987, The Alchemy of Finance , Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
–––, 2008, The Crash of 2008 and What it Means , New York: Public Affairs.
Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2009, “Too Big to Fail or Too Big to Save? Examining the Systemic Threats of Large Financial Institutions”, testimony at a hearing of the United States Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, April 21, 2009. [ Stiglitz 2009 available online ]
Strange, Susan, 1986, Casino Capitalism , Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Streeck, Wolfgang, 2013 [2014], Gekaufte Zeit , Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag. Translated as Buying Time. The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism , Patrick Camiller (trans.), London: Verso, 2014.
Strudler, Alan, 2009, “Insider Trading: A Moral Problem”, Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly , 29(3/4): 12–16. [ Strudler 2009 available online ]
Suttle, Oisin, 2016, “Debt, Default, and Two Liberal Theories of Justice”, German Law Journal , 17(5): 799–834.
Thamotheram, Raj and Aidan Ward, 2014, “Whose Risk Counts?”, in Hawley et al. 2014: 207–221. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139565516.020
Thomas, Abdulkader (ed.), 2006, Interest in Islamic Economics: Understanding Riba , New York: Routledge.
Thorgeirsdottir, Sigridur, 2015, “Dependency and Emancipation in the Debt-Economy: Care-Ethical Critique of Contractarian Conceptions of the Debtor-Creditor Relation”, Hypatia , 30(3): 564–579. doi:10.1111/hypa.12157
Tobin, James, 1963, “Commercial Banks as Creators of ‘Money’”, Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper , no. 159, New Haven, CT: Yale University. [ Tobin 1963 available online (PDF)]
–––, 1978, “A Proposal for International Monetary Reform”, Eastern Economic Journal , 4(3–4): 153–159.
Tucker, Paul, 2018, Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
United Nations, 2009, “Report of the Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System”, New York: United Nations. [ United Nations 2009 available online ]
Valentini, Laura, 2011, Justice in a Globalized World , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593859.001.0001
van ’t Klooster, Johannes Maria, 2017, How to Make Money: Distributive Justice, Finance, and Monetary Constitutions , PhD thesis, Department of Philosophy, University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.22062
–––, 2019, “Central Banking in Rawls’ Property-Owning Democracy”, Political Theory , 47(5): 674–698. doi:10.1177/0090591718810377
–––, 2020, “The Ethics of Delegating Monetary Policy”, Journal of Politics , 82(2): 587–99. doi:10.1086/706765
Visser, Wayne A.M. and Alastair MacIntosh, 1998, “A Short Review of the Historical Critique of Usury”, Accounting, Business and Financial History , 8(2): 175–189. doi:10.1080/095852098330503
von Hayek, Friedrich A., 1978, Denationalization of Money: The Argument Refined , London: Institute of Economic Affairs. [ von Hayek 1978 available online ]
Vooys, Sarah and David G. Dick, 2021, “Money and Mental Contents,” Synthese , 198(4): 3443–3458.
Walsh, Adrian and Tony Lynch, 2008, The Morality of Money , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walsh, D.M., 2015, “Variance, Invariance and Statistical Explanation”, Erkenntnis , 80(3), 469–489. doi:10.1007/s10670-014-9680-3
Warde, Ibrahim, 2010, Islamic Finance in the Global Economy , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Warenski, Lisa, 2018, “Disentangling the Epistemic Failings of the 2008 Financial Crisis”, in: David Coady and James Chase (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Applied Epistemology , New York: Routledge.
Weatherall, James, 2017, “The Peculiar Logic of the Black-Scholes Model”, SSRN Electronic Journal , 1–16. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2976242
Weatherford, Jack, 1997, The History of Money , New York: Three Rivers Press.
Weber, Heloise, 2004 “The ‘New Economy’ and Social Risk: Banking on the Poor?” Review of International Political Economy , 11(2): 356–86.
Weber, Max, 1905, “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus”, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften und Sozialpolitik , 21(1): 1–110.
Werhane, Patricia H., 1989, “The Ethics of Insider Trading”, Journal of Business Ethics , 8(11): 841–845. doi:10.1007/BF00384525
–––, 1991, “The Indefensibility of Insider Trading”, Journal of Business Ethics , 10(9): 729–731. doi:10.1007/BF00705879
Werner, Richard A., 2014a, “How Do Banks Create Money, and Why Can Other Firms Not Do the Same? An Explanation for the Coexistence of Lending and Deposit-Taking”, International Review of Financial Analysis , 36: 71–77. doi:10.1016/j.irfa.2014.10.013
–––, 2014b, “Can Banks Individually Create Money out of Nothing?—The Theories and the Empirical Evidence”, International Review of Financial Analysis , 36: 1–19. doi:10.1016/j.irfa.2014.07.015
Wesley, John, 1771, “The Use of Money”, in Sermon on Several Occasions , Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classic Ethereal Library.
White, Stuart, 2011, “The Republican Critique of Capitalism”, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy , 14(5): 561–579. doi:10.1080/13698230.2011.617119
Wiedenbrüg, Anahí, 2018a, “What Citizens Owe: Two Grounds for Challenging Debt Repayment”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 26(3): 368–387. doi:10.1111/jopp.12163
–––, 2018b, “What Creditors Owe”, Constellations , 25(1): 101–16. doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12293
Wolf, Martin, 2014a, “Strip Private Banks of Their Power to Create Money”, Financial Times , 24 April 2014.
–––, 2014b, The Shifts and the Shocks: What We’ve Learned—and Still Have to Learn—from the Financial Crisis , London: Penguin Books.
Wollner, Gabriel, 2014, “Justice in Finance: The Normative Case for an International Financial Transactions Tax”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 22(4): 458–485. doi:10.1111/jopp.12016
–––, 2018, “Morally Bankrupt: International Financial Governance and the Ethics of Sovereign Default”, Journal of Political Philosophy , 26(3): 344–367. doi:10.1111/jopp.12151
Woodruff, D. M. 2019. “To Democratize Finance, Democratize Central Banking”, Politics and Society 47(4): 593–610.
Yunus, Muhammad, 1998, Banker to the Poor , Dhaka: The University Press Limited.
–––, 2007, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism , New York: PublicAffairs.

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

Bank accounts in the EU: Right to a basic bank account , at the official website of the European Union (europa.eu)
Finance and Philosophy Blog , with updates on research at the intersection between philosophy and finance.

Copyright © 2023 by Boudewijn de Bruin < b . p . de . bruin @ rug . nl > Lisa Herzog < l . m . herzog @ rug . nl > Martin O’Neill < martin . oneill @ york . ac . uk > Joakim Sandberg < joakim . sandberg @ gu . se >

Accessibility

Support SEP

Mirror sites.

View this site from another server:

Info about mirror sites

Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

Is Money Really the Root of All Evil?

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Paul warned Timothy of the correlation between money and evil. Expensive and flashy things naturally capture our human craving for more stuff, but no amount will ever satisfy our souls.

Though we are free to enjoy God’s blessings on this earth, money can lead to jealousy, competition, stealing, cheating, lying, and all sorts of evil. “There is no kind of evil to which the love of money may not lead people, once it starts to control their lives,” says the Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Let's take a moment to study what the Bible has to teach us about money and how it leads to evil.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Deagreez

What Does This Verse Mean?

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” ( Matthew 6:21 ).

There are two schools of Biblical thinking about money. Some modern translations of Scripture suggest that only the love of money is evil, not money itself. However there are others who hold to the literal text. Regardless, anything we worship (or value, or focus on, etc.) more than God is an idol. John Piper writes that “It is possible that when Paul wrote these words, he was fully aware how challenging they would be, and that he left them just as he wrote them because he saw a sense in which the love of money is indeed the root of all evils- all evils! And he wanted Timothy (and us) to think down deep enough to see it.”

God assures us His provision, yet we strive to earn a monetary living. No amount of wealth can satisfy our souls. No matter what earthly wealth or object we are looking for, we were made to crave more of our Creator. The love of money is evil because we are commanded to have no other gods besides the one, true God.

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” ( Hebrews 13:5 ).

Love is all we need. God is l ove. He is our Provider, Sustainer, Healer, Creator, and our Abba Father .

Photo credit: © Sparrowstock

Why Is It Significant That the Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil?

Ecclesiastes 5:10 says, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” Scripture tells us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith . Jesus, Himself, said to give Caesar what is Caesar’s.

God commands us to tithe as an issue of heart loyalty, not a number to religiously check off our to-do list. God knows the tendency of our hearts, and the temptation to hold onto our money. In giving it away, it keeps the love of money at bay, and God on the throne of our hearts. When we’re willing to let go of it, we learn to trust He provides for us, not our astute ability to earn money. “It is not money that is a root of all kinds of evil, but the ‘love of money,’” the Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains.

What Does This Verse NOT Mean?

“Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possession and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” ( Matthew 19:21 ).

The man Jesus spoke to could not do what His Savior asked. Sadly, his possessions were seated above God on the throne of his heart. This is what God warns us of. He doesn’t hate wealth.

He tells us His plans for us are abundantly more than we could ever ask for or imagine. His blessings are new every day. We are created in His image, and we are part of His family. Our Father has good plans for our lives – to prosper us!

God hates anything we love more than Him. He is a jealous God! Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Happy Nati

What Is the Context of 1 Timothy 6?

“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be right fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” ( 1 Timothy 6:6-10 ).

Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, one of his best friends and brothers in the faith, however he intended the church at Ephesus (left in Timothy’s care) to hear the contents of the letter, too. “In this passage, the apostle Paul tells us to desire God and all the things of God,” wrote Jamie Rohrbaugh for iBelieve.com. “He instructs us to pursue holy things with great passion, rather than setting our hearts and affections on wealth and riches.”

The entirety of Chapter 6 addresses the church at Ephesus and their tendency to fall away from the true core of Christianity. Without a Bible to carry with them as we have today, they were swayed back and forth by different attributes of other faiths, Jewish law and their society.

Paul writes of obedience to God, contentment being rooted in God, fighting the good fight of faith, God as our provider, and false knowledge. He builds up and then scales down to de-root them of the evil and lopsided love of money, reminding them it is in Christ we find true contentment, and God provides for us – not only what we need, but He blesses us above and beyond!

“The modern reader who reads these 2300-year-old portraits of defective characters will find many familiar themes,” the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament explains, “and confirm Paul’s statement about money being at the root of broken friendships, shattered marriages, a bad reputation, and all kinds of evil.”

Photo credit: Unsplash/Green Chameleon

Are Wealthy People More at Risk of Leaving the Faith?

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys” ( Luke 12:33 ).

A person doesn’t have to be wealthy to give in to the temptation of the love of money. “The love of money works its destruction by luring the soul to forsake faith ,” explains John Piper. “Faith is the contented trust in Christ that Paul referred to.” Those who are poor, orphaned and in need depend on those who have the resources to share to give them.

Deuteronomy 15:7 reminds us that “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.” Both time and money are important, for to reach those in need with the gospel their physical needs to survive must be met.

Marshal Segal wrote for Desiring God: “A lust for more and more money and to buy more and more things is evil, and it ironically and tragically steals and murders the life and happiness it promises.” On the contrary, those who have very little may be the most content, because they know the secret to contentment is life within the love of Christ.

Whether we are wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between, we are all faced with the temptation that money presents to us.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Tinnakorn Jorruang

How Can We Guard Our Hearts from the Love of Money?

“Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it” ( Ecclesiastes 7:12 ).

We can guard our hearts from the love of money by making sure God is sitting on the throne of our hearts at all times. Wake to spend time in prayer with Him, even if it’s brief. Align schedules and goals with the will of God through prayer and time in God’s Word.

This CBN article explains that “Money has become so important that men will lie, cheat, bribe, defame, and kill to get it. The love of money becomes the ultimate idolatry.” His Truth and Love will guard our hearts from the love of money. And when we fall into temptation, we are never too far gone to turn back to God, who is always awaiting us with arms open to forgive and embrace us.

For more verses on money, click here.

10 Signs You Actually Love Money Too Much Is the Bible Anti-Wealth? 5 Valuable Lessons from Paul on the Benefits of Giving

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Sigital Skillet

Church Login
Sign Up Free
Church Login

“The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil”: What It Means and How to Preach It

1 Timothy 6:10 is often misused to teach that money is bad. Use this article to finally understand what the text means and how to preach it.

“The love of money is the root of all evil.”

It’s one of the most commonly quoted verses in the Bible.

Leaving many asking " is money the root of all evil?"

And yet, it can be a very confusing phrase without any context.

None of us really act like money is a bad thing.

None of us even act like the love of money is a bad thing.

Most Americans work 40+ hours a week just to make money. If that isn’t love, what is it?

But this phrase, which the Apostle Paul said to Timothy in a personal letter, carries a much deeper meaning than “money is bad and you shouldn’t want it.”

The Apostle Paul was making a deeper point about how to live our lives for a vision and a purpose that is bigger than money so that we know how to use that money well.

Here, we’re going to unpack that Bible verse, its context, how it’s been explained throughout the history of the church, and a few ways to apply it in a sermon.

Translations of 1 Timothy 6:10

The money is the root of all evil bible verse in question here is 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” First, let’s read through a few different translations of this Bible verse to get a sense of how the Apostle Paul is using it:

ESV: But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils . It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

NIV: Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil . Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The Message: “But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.”

The Context of 1 Timothy 6:10

First , note that the Apostle Paul is talking about a style of life that makes money its god. Paul is writing against a way of life that puts money above people, relationships, God, virtue, and charity.

Second , note that Paul is not writing against accumulating wealth . He is writing a young pastor to help him care for the souls of the churches he is planting. In summary, he is saying: “People who live like this often suffer these kinds of ends.” People who worship money often go down dark paths. That’s a more commonsense truth than “Loving money is evil.” And, it is much closer in spirit to what the Apostle Paul was saying.

Third , Paul wasn’t writing a textbook on business . He was, again, helping a young pastor to help his people focus on God. If Paul was writing a business book, he might have said: “If your goal is to make a profit, here’s how you do it.” Paul himself was a businessman—he owned a tent making business (Acts 18:3).

Paul was a tentmaker so that he didn’t have to take money from churches. If tent making enabled Paul to do ministry without taking money from churches, then this means he turned a profit—more than that, it means he desired to turn a profit. Therefore, Paul wasn’t writing against money. Paul wasn’t mean you can’t desire to build wealth. He was saying that the desire for money is a dangerous desire, and in the grand scheme of things, we can’t take any of it with us when we die, as he says a few verses earlier: “we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Tim. 6:7).

Church History's Understanding of 1 Timothy 6:10

This verse has been used throughout church history to comment on the spiritual power that the desire for money can gain over our souls. Here, we will look at examples from three Johns—John Chrysostom (4th century), John Calvin (16th century), and John Wesley (18th century).

John Chrysostom:

“Ver. 9. ‘But they that will be rich’; not those that are rich, but those who wish to be. For a man may have money and make a good use of it, not overvaluing it, but bestowing it upon the poor. Such therefore he does not blame, but the covetous. ‘They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.’ He has justly said, ‘they drown men,’ since they cannot be raised from that depth. ‘In destruction and perdition.’

Ver. 10. ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.’ Two things he mentions, and that which to them might seem the more weighty he places last, their many sorrows. And to learn how true this is, the only way is to sojourn with the rich, to see how many are their sorrows, how bitter their complaints.”

John Calvin:

“‘ They who wish to be rich’ After having exhorted him to be content, and to despise riches, he now explains how dangerous is the desire of having them, and especially in the ministers of the Church, of whom he expressly speaks in this passage. Now the cause of the evils, which the Apostle here enumerates, is not riches, but an eager desire of them, even though the person should be poor. And here Paul shews not only what generally happens, but what must always happen; for every man that has resolved to become rich gives himself up as a captive to the devil . Most true is that saying of the heathen poet, — ‘He who is desirous of becoming rich is also desirous of acquiring riches soon.’ Hence it follows, that all who are violently desirous of acquiring wealth rush headlong.

Hence also those foolish, or rather, mad desires, which at length plunge them into perdition . This is, indeed, a universal evil; but in the pastors of the Church it is more easily seen; for they are so maddened by avarice, that they stick at nothing, however foolish, whenever the glitter of gold or silver dazzles their eyes.”

John Wesley:

“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

“They that desire to be rich” — To have more than these; for then they would be so far rich; and the very desire banishes content, and exposes them to ruin.

“Fall-plunge” — A sad gradation! Into temptation - Miserable food for the soul! And a snare - Or trap. Dreadful "covering!" And into many foolish and hurtful desires - Which are sown and fed by having more than we need. Then farewell all hope of content! What then remains, but destruction for the body, and perdition for the soul?

How to Preach 1 Timothy 6:10

We can apply several of these things to the Christian life. When preaching a sermon, consider these three points as you craft your application for this text.

1. Money is a good means, but a bad God.

‍ Christians often feel guilty about making money—especially because of a misunderstanding of 1 Timothy 6:10. Take this opportunity to ease people of that guilt and change their understanding of this text from a prohibition against wealth to a warning about wealth .

2. We often lose what we think money will give us by pursuing it above all else.

‍ Many wealthy people reach the end of their lives and wish they had spent more time with their families, pursued more virtues paths, and done more honorable things with their lives. On the other hand, many wealthy die leaving legacies of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars given to charity, and a world changed for the better. In your pursuit of money, follow John Wesley’s advice: "Make as much as you can and give as much as you can." Don’t sacrifice family, friendship, or integrity at the throne of money. Use money as a tool to invest in the betterment of everyone within your reach.

3. Giving to the church is God’s way of keeping a check on our love of money.

God commands his people to give to the church. This practice helps Christians to maintain a financial margin in their lives so that they refrain from spending money on frivolous things, and so that their time and money can be a service to God’s work through his kingdom on earth: the church.

As you continue to study 1 Timothy 6:10—“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”—keep in mind the nuance and beauty of the truths this sentence aims to convey. If you feel guilty about money because of this verse, liberate yourself from that guilt. If you guilt others about money root of all evil, you are now free to stop.

But most of all—in Christ, we are free not to pursue money above all else, but to live for something bigger than ourselves: loving God and neighbor. This freedom should bring us joy, not guilt. And that is fundamental point that Paul is making in 1 Timothy 6:10 when he says “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

Want free stuff? Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

Get weekly updates on church tech, happenings at Tithe.ly, free resources for your church and more. Delivered every Thursday.

Sign Up for Product Updates

Tithely provides the tools you need to engage with your church online, stay connected, increase generosity, and simplify the lives of your staff.

With tools like text and email messaging, custom church apps and websites, church management software, digital giving, and so much more… it’s no wonder why over 37,000 churches in 50 countries trust Tithely to help run their church.

podcast transcript

Video transcript, special offer.

FREE VBS CANVA DESIGN TEMPLATES

Get access to all the design resources you’ll need to have an awesome VBS at your church this summer!

Search the Blog

Prayer and Church Growth: The Power of Prayer in Expanding Your Ministry

In this article, we'll explore how incorporating intentional and specific prayers into your ministry can lead to significant growth and impact.

The Kingdom of God: Ending the Sacred-Secular Divide

The Kingdom of God and the end of the sacred secular divide.

When You’re Struggling to Worship

Here are three things you can do if you're struggling to worship.

10 Best Bible Verses About Finances

For those seeking guidance on financial matters that honor God's teachings, here are ten powerful Bible verses about finances. These scriptures provide timeless wisdom on stewardship, generosity, and the ethical management of money.

26 Good Friday and Easter Sunday Bible Verses

What follows are 26 powerful Good Friday and Easter Sunday Bible verses. These verses should encourage you, move you to worship, and give you great hope. Let these words inspire you and fill you with joy today.

12 Impactful Opening Prayers For Meetings (+ Verses)

Whether you are leading a business meeting, a team huddle, or a prayer gathering, here are 12 impactful opening prayers for meetings that can help start your session off on the right foot.

10 Bible Verses About Stewardship of Money

God blesses His people with many resources, including money, but that blessing comes with the responsibility of using it for God's glory. After all, everything comes from Him.

41 Powerful Easter Quote Ideas (2024)

In this post, we’ve included 41 of the most powerful Christian easter quotes. Let these quotes inspire and encourage you as you celebrate this wonderful day.

A New Audio Devotional: Dwell Daily

Over the past five years, more than a million people have recovered the ancient practice of listening to Scripture. Here's a sneak peak at the new Dwell Daily audio devotional.

5 Simple Things Unhealthy Churches Never Measure

Discover the five key metrics that smart churches measure to enhance their health and foster growth, based on insights from over 170 church consultations across five nations.

How Mobile Donation Apps Are Changing the Way We Give

In this blog post, we'll explore how mobile donation apps are changing the way we give and why they are becoming increasingly popular.

Empowering Leadership: How to Cultivate Leadership Skills in Your Church Staff

In this guide, we look at the foundational principles of nurturing leadership skills among church staff, emphasizing the importance of things like mentorship, continuous learning, and creating a culture of trust and accountability.

Church Giving
Online Giving
Mobile Giving
Text Giving
Pledge Campaigns
Giving Insights Dashboard
Custom Church App
Event Registration
Church Management (ChMS)
Background Checks
Church Website Builder
Text Messaging and Email
Tithely Pay Point of Sale
Sermonly Sermon Writer
Tithely Print
Accept Bitcoin and Crypto
Product Updates
Integrations
HELP AND SUPPORT
Help Center
Get Support
Schedule a Sales Demo
Getting Started with Tithely
Tithely University
API Documentation
Platform Status
Download Tithely Giving App
Customer Success Stories
Tithely Reviews
Compare Tithely
Our Partners
Recommendations
Free Resources
Giving Research and Data
Tithely Launch Kit
Guide to Mobile Giving
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Modern Church Leader
Church Tech Podcast
Tithely Backstage
About Tithely
Media and Brand Kit
Shop Tithely Merch
Tithe.ly Next
Top Blog Articles
Read the Tithely Blog
Scriptures About Giving
Tithing in the New Testament
Bible Verses About Money
20 Tithe & Offering Messages
Why Do We Give Tithes & Offerings
The Best Church Text Messaging Services
Top 10 Best Giving Platforms

What size is your church?

Why Is the Love of Money “The Root of All Evil”? (1 Timothy 6:10)

Jamie rohrbaugh.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “money is the root of all evil”? Perhaps the way it was spoken and applied has led you to bear a weight of condemnation when you need, enjoy, use, and earn money?

Whether or not this is the case, I want to show you what the Scripture here means in regard to money.

The phrase “money is the root of all evil” is found in 1 Timothy 6:6-12. However, it’s not directly taken from the Scriptures. It’s actually a mis-quotation that drives a lot of people into unscriptural, scarcity-based thinking. Scripture says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and understanding the full meaning of these words impacts us in more ways than our finances.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “the love of money is the root of all evil”? Perhaps the way it was spoken and applied has led you to bear a weight of condemnation when you need, enjoy, use, and earn money?

The phrase “the love of money is the root of all evil ” is found in 1 Timothy 6:6-12 . However, it’s not directly taken from the Scriptures. It’s actually a mis-quotation that drives a lot of people into unscriptural, scarcity-based thinking. Scripture says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and understanding the full meaning of these words impacts us in more ways than our finances.

What God's Word Actually Says about Money and Wealth (and loving it)

1 Timothy 6:6-12 actually says:

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Notice two things about this passage:

1. The Bible does not say that money is the root of all evil, but talks about “the love of money.”

This is a key difference because the whole passage—when you read it in context—is addressing the state of our hearts:

What we desire,
What we pursue,
What we live for, and
Whether our hearts are set on things above, where Christ is, or on material things of this earth.

In this passage, the apostle Paul tells us to desire God and all the things of God. He instructs us to pursue holy things with great passion, rather than setting our hearts and affections on wealth and riches.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have money, earn money, save and invest money, enjoy exchanging money for what we need or desire, or otherwise become involved in financial things…

… But it does mean that we cannot be emotionally attached to money.

2. The apostle Paul warned us about the real danger of “love of money.”

How many movies you have ever seen in which the villain was trying to steal or control power and money? If you are a fan of the big screen, you may actually have seen dozens or even hundreds of such storylines. You may not have realized what you were watching, but Hollywood is wrapped up with the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—concisely, the lust for power and money.

That quest for power and money doesn’t always feel real to Christians. At some level, each of us is trying to live for God, so we don’t realize how serious the world’s addiction to money really is. However, for people who don’t know Jesus, the lust for power and money is immense.

This is why the Lord used the apostle Paul to warn us in 1 Timothy 6 to resist the love of money.

We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our strength. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to seek and desire the face of Jesus—along with all the godly and holy things He instructs us to do and pursue.

Loving money has nothing in common with loving Jesus.

“Loving money” means you set your desire on that money. It means your emotions are attached to money; that the affection of your heart is centered on money. It means the posture of your heart leans toward the accumulation of this resource that give you power, security, love, or anything that you do not trust God to satisfy with Himself.

Loving Jesus, on the other hand, means:

Your desire is for Christ. You love Him, seek His face, and live only to please Him.
Your emotions are centered on God. You depend on Him to comfort you, lead you, guide you, and fill you with His power, love, peace, joy, and all the fruit of the Spirit.
You wake up and say, “Lord God, I commit my life to You today. You are everything to me. Would You glorify Your own name in my life today?”

We are not commanded to avoid money. Instead, the Bible commands us to use money, earn money, save money, invest money, and steward money well in service to Him—but to only love God and people, not money.

Money Is What Human Hearts Choose to Make It

Money is a tool.

It is a method of exchange: something you give someone in exchange for something else. It is amoral—neither good nor evil. But, its undeniable importance in our daily lives means that the enemy does all he can to rob people of a true, Biblical understanding of money.

That’s why, as Christians, we should know that God says:

His blessing makes you rich ( Proverbs 10:22 ).
He will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus ( Philippians 4:19 ). That’sa lot of riches—and a LOT of supply!
He wants us to save money for future needs, lean times, and emergencies ( Proverbs 6:6-8 ).
He honors the work of investing money and building upstanding businesses ( Proverbs 31:16 ).
We are to keep a close watch on our finances ( Proverbs 27:23-27 ).
And most importantly, we are to be acutely aware that God owns it all . Everything in Heaven and earth belongs to God, and we are only stewarding His resources on His behalf ( 1 Chronicles 29:10-12 ; Psalm 24:1 ).

Let Scripture Inform Your Theology of Money, and Set Your Heart on Christ

As Ecclesiastes 10:19 says, “A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry; but money answers everything.” The author of Ecclesiastes points out that money is involved in every aspect of life. And when we examine what the whole Bible has to say about money, we see that money is always a blessing and poverty is always a curse.

Whether you love or hate or are indifferent to money, I encourage you to search the Scriptures, not with the intent to defend or justify your feelings about money, but to submit your understanding of money’s place in your life to God’s trustworthy authority.

Read what God has to say about money from Genesis through Revelation. Whatever form it takes, God wants to provide for you. But more than being comfortable in your resources, He wants you to have a pure heart. He wants you to pursue Him and not riches, and to steward His gifts well for His glory.

However God blesses you, worship the giver and enjoy his gifts, always remaining sensitive to how He calls you to give back and bless others. And when you submit your finances to His Lordship and obey everything He says to do regarding money, your heart will be freed to center on Jesus—where it belongs.

This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin and history of specific verses within Scripture context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.

"Be Still and Know that I Am God" "Pray Without Ceasing" "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" "Faith Without Works is Dead" "Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart" "All Things Work Together for Good" "Be Strong and Courageous"

Photo credit: Unsplash / Sharon McCutcheon

Popular Today

How to Trust God with the Controls of Your Life

Editor's Picks

Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We’re on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ.

Is Love of Money Really the Root of All Evils?

John Piper Twitter @JohnPiper

Don’t devour one another, god decides the future, the emotional roller coaster of bible reading, god rules babylon, how does love fulfill the law, seemingly insignificant providence.

Founder & Teacher, desiringGod.org

Is the love of money the “root of all evils” or only the “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10)? “All evils” is the formal English equivalent of the original Greek ( pantōn tōn kakōn ).

It is remarkable that all older versions of the Bible translate 1 Timothy 6:10 in the more literal way: “The love of money is the root of all evils ” (or all evil). This includes the Wycliffe Bible, Luther Bibel, Geneva Bible, King James Version, Douay-Rheims, Darby Bible, and Revised Standard Version.

But almost all modern versions use the interpretive paraphrase: “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil .” These include the NCV, NIV, NASB, ASV, ESV, NKJV, HCSB, NLT, NRSV, and GNT.

One exception among the modern translations is the NET Bible: “For the love of money is the root of all evils.” The NET note on “all evils” reads:

Many translations render this “of all kinds of evil.” . . . But there is no parallel for taking a construction like this to mean “all kinds of” or “every kind of.” The normal sense is “all evils.”

Why Do Modern Versions Paraphrase?

So what changed in the last sixty years that caused a uniformly literal translation (“root of all evils”) to give way to a uniform paraphrase (“root of all kinds of evil”)? One thing we know did not change: the meaning of the text. The Greek words of 1 Timothy 6:10 carried Paul’s intention in Luther’s day, and they carry the same intention today.

Another thing we know did not change: It is no more difficult or easy for the love of money to be the root of all evils today than it was five hundred years ago. If modern translators see a problem, so did the translators five hundred years ago. All translators have had the thought expressed in the notes of the NET Bible — that saying the love of money is the root of all evils “seems to be not entirely true to life (some evils are unrelated to love of money).” So they say.

“Modern translators feel freer to depart from clear, intelligible formal equivalence in favor of explanatory paraphrases.”

What has changed in the last sixty years is that translators today feel freer to depart from clear and intelligible formal equivalence in favor of explanatory paraphrases. There is nothing linguistically or grammatically obscure about the literal translation, “The love of money is the root of all evils.” What is unclear is how the love of money can actually be the root of all evils.

All translators have felt this, not just modern ones. Why, then, did none of the older translators translate the text as “all kinds of evil”? My guess is that their thinking went something like this:

I may not be able to see how the love of money is the root of all evils, but I should not let my inability decide whether there may indeed be a way that money is the root of all evils. So, I will leave it as Paul wrote it. Perhaps people more insightful than I will penetrate to Paul’s meaning.

That seems to be exactly the right attitude to have in translating a text that claims divine inspiration and carries absolute authority. The modern assumption seems to be:

If we can’t see how Paul could mean, “The love of money is the root of all evils,” then we have the right and the wisdom to change the wording to suggest a more plausible meaning.

Preserving Original Ambiguity

Let me try to preempt a criticism. I am aware that formal equivalence is not always possible. Sometimes there is no construction in English corresponding to the Greek and Hebrew. Sometimes formal equivalency would be so awkward that all readers would stumble over the English.

But in the case of 1 Timothy 6:10, the Greek structure in question is straightforward ( pantōn tōn kakōn ) and has an exact English counterpart (“of all evils”). Both are equally clear and equally puzzling. There is no hidden clue in the Greek phrase or the English phrase that would make things any clearer or more obscure. Which means that nothing is lost in clarity when a simple equivalent phrase is used to translate the Greek, like “root of all evils.” No clarity is lost, because the same ambiguity is preserved.

This preservation of formal similarity is a great gain. It is what I long for in all translation, wherever possible. The gain is that now the average reader, and the pastor whose Greek is rusty, has the chance to think deeply and contextually about how Paul saw the love of money as the root of all evils . The reader is not robbed of his own possible exegetical discoveries simply because the translators decided for him that no plausible meaning could be given to the words as Paul wrote them.

In my opinion, this text is a clear case where translators should humble themselves and admit that their inability to see a plausible meaning for Paul’s words (“root of all evils”) does not mean there isn’t one. If “all kinds of evil” is the best interpretation of the puzzling words, let the reader discover and decide that.

How Is Love of Money the Root of All Evils?

It is possible that when Paul wrote these words, he was fully aware how challenging they would be, and that he left them just as he wrote them because he saw a sense in which the love of money is indeed the root of all evils — all evils! — and he wanted Timothy (and us) to think down deep enough to see it.

I think that was, in fact, the case. I’ll give my very brief suggestion for how the love of money is the root of all evils. But even if you think I am wrong, the main point about translation stands, because someone else may find the key, even if I haven’t.

Here’s the context of 1 Timothy 6:6–10:

Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils . It is through this love of money that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Notice that the first part of verse 10 (“For the love of money is a root of all evils”) functions as a ground, or a cause, both backward for verse 9 and forward for the rest of verse 10. Let’s take these one at a time.

How is verse 10a a ground for verse 9?

Verse 9 says that those who desire to be rich fall into “many senseless and harmful desires.” Notice that the desire to be rich does not produce just one desire, but many . Then Paul says the desire to be rich has this effect “ because the love of money is the root of all evils.” The “desire to be rich” in verse 9 corresponds to “the love of money” in verse 10a. And the “many desires” of verse 9 corresponds to “all evils” in verse 10.

Paul is tracing the cause of these “many desires” back to the love of money as the root of “all evils.” Why does the desire to be rich not just result in one desire for money but “many desires”? Because the love of money is the root of vastly more than we usually think it is. It is the root of all evils that men do. Paul is tracing the multiplicity of desires that flow from the desire to be rich down deep to a root that accounts for “many” because it accounts for “all.”

“The love of money is the root of vastly more than we usually think it is.”

How does the love of money do that? Here is one way: Because “money” is of no value in itself (the paper or the metal). It is desirable only because it is a cultural symbol which can be traded for the “many desires” that we have. But it cannot be traded for God or godliness. Therefore, the love of money in Paul’s mind corresponds to the root longing for the things money can buy minus God. That is why all these many desires “plunge people into ruin and destruction” (verse 9).

Good desires don’t destroy. Only desires for anything minus God destroy. That is what the love of money represents. Therefore, this love is the root of all evils that men commit. Because all evils come from that root desire — the desire for anything minus God. No exceptions.

This is the essence of sin and the root of all sinning — falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Or, to put it another way, sin is “exchanging God for the creation” (see Romans 1:23, 25). In other words, at root, sin is preferring anything above God. “All evils” come from this preferring, or this desiring. If something is desired for God’s sake, that desire is not sin. If anything is desired not for God’s sake, that desire is sin. Therefore, all sin, “all evils,” come from this desire, this love — represented in 1 Timothy 6:10 by love for the currency of satisfaction minus God.

How is verse 10a related to the rest of verse 10?

Now we look in the other direction from verse 10a — forward to the rest of the verse. “ For the love of money is a root of all evils . It is through this love of money that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Just as in verse 9 the “many senseless and harmful desires plunge people into ruin and destruction,” so here in verse 10 the love of money leads people to “pierce themselves with many pangs.”

“If you love money, you cannot serve God. And if you cannot serve God, then everything you do is evil.”

How? “Through this love of money some have wandered away from the faith .” The love of money works its destruction by luring the soul to forsake faith . Faith is the contented trust in Christ that Paul referred to in verse 6: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Faith says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content ” (Philippians 4:11). Faith has contentment in all circumstances because it has Christ, and Christ makes up for every loss: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

All true virtue grows from this root of resting in Christ. Without it, we perform our deeds not as an expression of Christ’s all-sufficiency, but in order to make up for some deficiency we feel, for lack of faith. But that is not true virtue, and it doesn’t honor Christ. Only what is done from faith is truly virtuous. Thus Paul wrote, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).

Which means, “all evils” — to use the words of 1 Timothy 6:10 — rise from the soul that has been lured away from faith. And that, Paul says, is what the love of money does. Through this love of money “some have wandered away from the faith.” But “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Only evil comes from faithlessness — all evil .

You Can’t Love God and Money

So, whether we focus on the way 1 Timothy 6:10a relates backward to verse 9, or forward to the rest of verse 10, the conclusion is the same: It is not nonsense to speak of the love of money being the root of all evils . Changing this in translation to “all kinds of evil” is unnecessary (and when you think about it, “ all kinds” is probably just as problematic as “ all evils”).

Perhaps the simplest way to illustrate this is to quote Jesus when he said,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

Jesus uses the term “love” to describe the choice: We either love God, or we love money. He attaches the idea of “serving” to this idea of loving: “You cannot serve God and money.” From this I infer that, if you love money, you cannot serve God. And if you cannot serve God, then everything you do is evil. Because that is what evil is: any act not done out of loving service to God. Therefore, the love of money is the root of all evils , not just some evils.

Perhaps you are not persuaded that I have seen a plausible meaning in 1 Timothy 6:10 for the words, “The love of money is the root of all evils .” If not, I hope you have at least seen that someone given more insight than I surely might see such a meaning. Therefore, translators should not preempt that effort by presuming to know such a meaning did not exist.

New Resources in Your Inbox

A digest from Desiring God

Speak to Men Like Men

The Wild Glory of an ‘Ordinary’ Life

Research Paper
Book Report
Book Review
Movie Review
Dissertation
Thesis Proposal
Research Proposal
Dissertation - Abstract
Dissertation Introduction
Dissertation Review
Dissertat. Methodology
Dissertation - Results
Admission Essay
Scholarship Essay
Personal Statement
Proofreading
Speech Presentation
Math Problem
Article Critique
Annotated Bibliography
Reaction Paper
PowerPoint Presentation
Statistics Project
Multiple Choice Questions
Resume Writing
Other (Not Listed)

Money is The Root of All Evil (Essay Sample)

Expand upon the theory that the love of money is the root of all evil

Money Is the Root of All Evil

Save to my list

Remove from my list

What Is the Current Poverty Rate in the United States?
Mayo Clinic: Depression
1 Timothy 6:10 New International Version

Money Is the Root of All Evil. (2016, Jun 04). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay

"Money Is the Root of All Evil." StudyMoose , 4 Jun 2016, https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay

StudyMoose. (2016). Money Is the Root of All Evil . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay [Accessed: 29 Jun. 2024]

"Money Is the Root of All Evil." StudyMoose, Jun 04, 2016. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay

"Money Is the Root of All Evil," StudyMoose , 04-Jun-2016. [Online]. Available: https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay. [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024]

StudyMoose. (2016). Money Is the Root of All Evil . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-essay [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024]

Money Is the Root of Evil Pages: 2 (481 words)
Ambition is Root of All Evil in Macbeth Pages: 2 (584 words)
Greed for Money and Power: A Root Cause of Human Misery Pages: 3 (648 words)
Expectation Is The Root Of All Heartache Pages: 2 (425 words)
Electronic media is the root cause of all evils Pages: 3 (744 words)
My View Of The Problem Of Evil in Mackie's Article ‘Evil And Omnipotence’ Pages: 7 (1943 words)
Capitalism: Money That Make Money Pages: 7 (2018 words)
Spending money on the elderly is a waste of money Pages: 3 (791 words)
Old Money vs New Money Great Gatsby Pages: 4 (993 words)
Connection Between Money and Happiness: Does Money Bring Happiness Pages: 2 (588 words)

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

Search Search

Blue Friday Sale! Shop Friday flash sale deals and more, including 20% off Logos 10 packages, June 21–July 1. Save now or 888-568-3589 .

Is Money the Root of All Evil? What the Bible (Really) Says

No doubt we’ve all heard somewhere that “money is the root of all evil.” The saying is deeply embedded in popular wisdom.

But is it really true?

Where did “money is the root of all evil” come from?

The origin is actually pretty clear. We can trace the phrase directly back to a much-quoted letter written by the apostle Paul to his young apprentice Timothy, probably in the mid-sixties.

Paul wrote portions of this letter out of a concern that certain church leaders may have strayed into greed. Working together, he and Timothy had to deal with the growing pains of a struggling young church.

Except in our day Paul has been badly misquoted.

The good news is that it only takes a few minutes to clear these muddy waters. And eventually the challenge of a much deeper (and quite positive) principle emerges. But more on that later.

Let’s start by looking at where we may have gone wrong, all this time. How is Paul typically and frequently misunderstood?

Love of money: what it really means

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Tim 6:10)

It’s pretty hard not to trip over a wide gap of meaning between “money is the root” (the old saying) and “love of money is a root” (the actual wording of the verse, as found in the ESV). Bible commentaries or even study Bibles like the Faithlife Study Bible (available free) typically point out two differences:

1. Money itself is not the problem

2. money is not “the” root of “all” evil.

Whether love of money is the root or a root, any grammatical difference doesn’t diminish the trouble a person can easily encounter with money in hand—or in particular the trouble that comes with a destructive desire for more of it. So handle with care!

All kinds of evils: a little context

It’s worth noting that Paul’s advice in 1 Timothy 6:10 provides a solid set of guideposts—and an appropriately stern warning. Here the surrounding four verses help us decode larger life lessons about the role money should play in our lives:

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Tim 6:6–10)

Ruin. Destruction. Snares. Evil. A careful reading of these verses should send shivers up our spines.

Love of money: what the Bible says

Love of money, then, equals compromised allegiance—which is anything that takes the place of God. Idolatry. And the rest of the Bible has plenty more to say about the proper place for money, possessions, and wealth. Well over two thousand verses mention these things, in fact. Jesus tackled the money issue quite often in his preaching, too—more than any other topic!

Here’s just a sampler, from both the Old and New Testaments:

Proverbs 11:25

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

Proverbs 28:20

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Ecclesiastes 7:12

For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Matthew 19:23–24

Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you not forsake you.”

Colossians 3:5

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Take it away? Wait a minute

Now that we understand 1 Timothy 6:10 a little better, the question remains: How do we actually avoid this “root of all evil”?

Historically, some folks have dealt with the “evil” problem by simply giving up on money or wealth entirely. Just take it away? It’s an understandable reaction, sort of.

Understandable, because Jesus even used the term “unrighteous wealth,” which at first might sound like something we shouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole:

I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If you then have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Luke 16:9–13)

But wait. See what Jesus says to his disciples after the first sentence? In the very same breath that the Lord seems to curse money, he points us to an entirely different way of using that unrighteous stuff.

Notice he didn’t say to run away. He didn’t say to hoard it.

So this is a difficult but clear instruction that directs us to engage, dollar bills in hand. For believers it’s not as simple as just saying saying “take it away!”

That’s the difference: use it! Make it work for something bigger. For eternal purposes. For God’s glory and the benefit of others in need. For the kingdom.

Love of money? Here’s the antidote!

In the end, no one ever said avoiding the love of money was going to be easy. For most of us, it’s a lifelong project.

Still, we can’t forget the deeper aspect mentioned at the start of this article. Take a look at the well-known “ Sermon on the Mount ” recorded in Matthew’s Gospel:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” Jesus told the crowds, “where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19–21)

So there’s the positive flip side to this challenge: yes, lay up treasures in heaven! Doing so helps us avoid “all kinds of evils” en route to embracing the Jesus way.

And as we tread the ultimate path around that pesky, money-loving pitfall, here are a few resources to bring along on the journey:

1. “ Money Is the Root of All Evil ,” by Pastor Chris Brown

Chris Brown pastors at North Coast Church in California. In this brief but bright teaching, he argues: “Money makes an incredible servant, but it’s a terrible master.”

2. “ Desiring to Be Rich vs. Desiring to Make Money ,” with Randy Alcorn

In this interview with Randy Alcorn, the teacher asks: Is there a difference between wanting to be rich and wanting to make more money?

3. Free version of the Logos app

This version includes two great Bible commentaries, both of which dig deeper into the “love of money” issue. Plus, you can study what the Bible and your resources say about money through powerful, easy-to-use tools like the Factbook or the Topic Guide. All you have to do is enter the topic, then you’re off to deeper study through relevant Scriptures and much more.

Delight Yourself in the Lord: What the Bible Teaches + 7 Tips
Setting Your Mind on Things Above in a Things Below World
What Speak Truth in Love Means—and Doesn’t Mean
What Is Envy? Analyzing This Subtle Sin

R. C. Sproul, How Should I Think about Money? (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2016), 10.
Note on 1 Timothy 6:10, in Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, JFB (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Edition, 1997).
Note on 1 Timothy 6:10, the Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions, and Eternity (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011), 18.

Robert Elmer

Robert Elmer has written more than fifty books, including youth and adult fiction, nonfiction, and devotional. He earned his undergraduate degree in communications and Bible from Simpson University, with post-graduate studies in education at St. Mary’s College. He began his career as a copywriter, reporter, and news editor, and is now the editor of the “Prayers of the Church” series from Lexham Press, which includes Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans and Fount of Heaven: Prayers of the Early Church. Robert and his wife make their home in the Pacific Northwest.

How Old Testament Typology Reveals Shadows of Salvation

Bible Study for Couples: Why and How to Study the Bible Together

What Is This Thing Called Bible Study?

3 Things You Should Look for in a Good Study Bible

Your email address has been added

Money Is the Root of All Evil

What do you think, is money the root of all evil?

All the Yes points:

The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging., spiritual damage, there are alternatives to money, family damage, if money was such a good thing then it would serve the people. instead people serve it., money equals a social status, money causes interest, all the no points:, money can be donated to a good cause., some evil clearly nothing to do with money, money is not the root of all evil. the lack of money is the root of all evil., money represents positive value, money is the end product of what you did, originally, money was the solution to the problems(/inefficiencies in transactions) arising out of barter exchange system., money can’t be dispensed with, there’s no such thing as the root of evil, yes because…, no because….

What does greed got to do with money? Even without money, greed still exists.

Money CAN be a good thing but who’s really in control? Do you think you’re in control because, what, you have a good job? You invested in something? Exactly how much control do you have over your own life when all you do is serve pieces of paper and the system that relies on it? I suggest to watch these if you dont know what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt1cayx0hs

Society often judges people according how much money they have, so money equal status. In some institutions you means nothing if you didn´ t have money.

There are many roots to acts that would be considered evil – I will assume this means actions that harm others or denigrate the self, but the concept of ‘evil’ itself is by no means straightforward – that are nothing to do with money. For instance, a murder might be motivated by anger, a rape by uncontrollable lust, bullying and discrimination by ignorance. You don’t need money to commit a crime. You need a big rock or stick to murder someone. You need the other person not to notice to steal something from someone. Crime has been happening before a monetary system. Religion has also led to a lot of destruction since a long time. Not only this even the greatest of problems dont have their root cause as money.The biggest example being Taliban.Why are they attacking people, they are not getting money from it but it is because they want blood, killing of Indians and Americans. This is called racism. So money is not the root cause of all evil.

Without money they couldn’t have commited the evil crimes. and ya “SOME” evil got nothing 2 do with money but most evil got alot 2 do with money !!!

I respect both sides and I understand why many people believe that money is the root of all evil. But I have to disagree. The lack of money is the root of all evil. Back in the history of mankind, before money was invented, we bartered. Money was the result of hardworking process. Bear in mind that criminals are all born in poverty and some of them live in poverty. The fear of lacking money haunts them constantly. It is the fear of not being able to feed themselves and their families that make them commit unthinkable crimes. If money is evil, could you live in a world without money? If greed or desire is evil, have you ever wanted something that is not yours? Any of you ever want an Iphone? Any of you can live without computer, electricity and all of modern comfort? If you think money is the root of all evil, I’d like to recommend the Communist Manifesto for you. Marx talked about an utopia society in which people work based on their ability and get rewarded base on their needs. Money would not be necessary. I like to ask those who think money is not necessary to point out a successful communist example. Im from a communist, aka socialist, country. And we are moving toward a capitalistic market. I strongly believe that if you dont work for yourself, nobody will. Money motivates people to work harder, smarter. Would there be light bub if Edison work for just bread and milk only? You might say those riches keep getting richer without giving away their money to the poor. I’d like to ask you “Why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer?” If you find the question somewhat interesting please spend sometimes read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” It changed a poor college student’s way of thinking, I hope it will be helpful too. Money is not the root of all evil. The lack of money is the root of all evil.

But if there was no money (such as in the case of communism) the lack of it, wouldn’t adversely affect anyone. All the fears you refer to only exist because we need ‘money’ to buy stuff but if there was no money and resources were distributed freely and equally there would be no need for petty cash or even less liquid monetary equivalents. No-one is free of evil/desires, your argument is just as crudely sufficient as saying ‘lying isn’t bad because everyone has done it at some point’. The fact that we sin and/or are tempted to, doesn’t not make it right/good.

To be fair the lack of money is one of the roots of evil. But still money is not the root of all evil :) … Complaint: My opponent is not being clear about his views. … “Now you might argue that lust and the want of possessions is not the same as the want/need of money, but money is a means to that end. “ Imagine no money here in this situation. No money means either you don’t want to ever buy/ sell anything ever in life; withdraw yourself from society n go become a sage (not 99.99% people ever would wanna do it) OR you wanna go back to the days of barter exchange- as for the drawbacks of barter, I’ve briefed on it as a separate point 3 blocks down- check it.

The desperation and greed caused by unlimited wants, unequal distribution of resources and a restrictive means(money) of getting anything. Is the sole and ultimate cause of stress,frustration,anger,rage and thus all crimes. Now you might argue that lust and the want of possessions is not the same as the want/need of money, but money is a means to that end. Everything has a price tag. Everything/person can be bought. If someone won’t marry you because s/he finds you unattractive, you cosmetically/surgically alter your appearance using ‘money’. The one you want does not like your personality : you can change your personality by paying for a course or workshop. Get private investigators, bribe the police, bribe lawyers or hire extremely expensive ones…you can spit in the face of justice/morality. You can get anything and everything. ‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely'[[Lord acton]] Money is power.

It is a great American contribution to world culture, that they have coined the phrase “to make money”. Money is made, by effort of muscle, willpower, and intelect. There can be no society composed entirely of thieves, as there will be no value to steal. Money represents the confidence of parties that the value of their efforts can be traded for the value of others’ efforts. It is a recognition of the importance of society based on trade, rather than the only real alternative: violence. To be clear, money contributed to charity is also traded, for the value of achieving a social goal – this in contrast to taxes, which are forcefully taken.

Were the soviets, who sent the first dog,man and woman into space, devoid of intellect, creativity, willpower, effort, muscle and the rest of it? P.O.A no they were not. The notion that money is the sole motivator is a great fallacy.If the notion were true, social/pro bono/charity work would not exist. Why are there unpaid interns? Why do students pay for courses? you might argue that everything is done to ultimately make money but the point is, making money is not why people are motivated to perform well and outperform others. Some other reasons are recognition,fame,responsibility,habits( being a workaholic) and competition. The need for money is artificially created in a capitalist world. Outside of that universe of discourse, where money is banished and resources are equally and fairly distributed, all the frustration over not having your needs or wants met, would diminish. Having more money than another person is similar to having the ability to cheat him/her. Historical rhetoric propounds: people with higher salaries exploit people who work under them, The rich exploit the poor and so on. It is quite possible to have money without earning it through your own competence. very rich people often inherit it from their family, order other people to make money for them, and then money generates more money through interest rates. people on Income Support get money directly through being unable to make money, although it isn’t really their fault.

Money is the end product of something that you did that you think its enjoyable to you. For example, if someone started invest into a company or firms, it is because of the excitement not because of money. It is the excitement that make people invest and this excitement will leads to the end product, money. Therefore there is no reason to say that money is the root of all evil. Money is just the end product of what you did that excite you

money can be the end product of theft. theft is evil. therefore money is the root of evil. Cozmo — more often people steal for money, pick-pockets, theives, burglars, crazy people. Money CAN be good but most people dont know how to use it so they use it for their own satisfying needs. Cozmo — 90% of crimes are based on money.

Read on the history of money. Originally, Money was the solution to the problems(/inefficiencies in transactions) arising out of barter exchange system. Ex: In barter exchange there had to be a double co-incidence of wants. A man selling milk who wanted to buy rice had to find someone selling rice & wanting milk. GOOD LORD! Just imagine how time-consuming & frustrating. Also, there was a need for a standard to objectively measure the value of all types of goods like cows, milk, foodgrains, clothes, ornaments, etc. Imagine feelings of doubt & being cheated arising out of selling 1 kg rice in exchange of 3 litres milk (when later you met someone offering you 4 litres in exchange for the same value)! Moreover, money is the best & most liquid store of value & has legal tender – so you sue someone legally if cheated. Money solved the problem & also avoided all the confusion. Money is an indispensable part of our lives. Money has to be earned! The root of evil is people who want the unearned money. Saying “MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL” is like blaming your tools; it’s very embarrassing. A similar statement: “Computers (or tech) is a curse.” Ex: You condemn the car for it lead to a terrible accident & you landed up in hospital. So is car the cause of the accident? Or are there other things to consider- like did you repair & maintain it regularly? Why did you buy it? Were you drunk? Were you daydreaming while driving? Did another car hit yours? I’d say that anyone with minimal level of intelligence should get the gist of it & should be in a position to discern the fact that car per se didn’t create the problem. In the accident scene, car was the passive factor while the man driving it was an active factor & another car hitting it was the causal factor. Money too is a passive factor. How you approach it makes all the difference! Just as how you use Internet & Computer decides whether it be a curse or a boon. My smartass opponent may say car was purchased with money- so again money is the root of all evil. Alright then, could you dispense with your car? Could you dispense with anything else having money value? But this is different issue altogether.

see the essence of of what I mean by “money” — anything that is or acts as money i.e. anything that performs the recognized functions of money or serves the recognized purpose of money. I’d quote a definition “Money is a good that acts as a medium of exchange in transactions. Classically it is said that money acts as a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. Most authors find that the first two are nonessential properties that follow from the third. In fact, other goods are often better than money at being intertemporal stores of value, since most monies degrade in value over time through inflation or the overthrow of governments.” Now think– can you do without money? Do you wanna go back to the days for barter system? Imagine no banks, no recognized/ standard medium to transact.

Evil can take different forms & types and also has different causes most of them-psychological.

This allegation is completely wrong. Satan is the root of all evil. Cozmo —Satan is the root of all evil but Satan is also the one who made people use money to do bad deeds. he used people so they can satisfy their own needs however horrible so Satan IS the root of all evil, but also money because if Satan didnt have control over money, we would all use it for good wouldnt we? but noooo… we think its wuch a waste to use so much money on Salvation army blah blah blah… get my point? It’s all Satan’s doing

totally wrong if all criminals are born in poverty why do politicians have so much of it🤣🤣😅

Money is NOT the root cause of ALL evil. The only reason ‘evils’ like world hunger and poverty exist is because of a lack of money so it could be argued that it is the cause, but in reality, did hitler suddenly decide to start a war with the world because of money? No, he didnt, he did it for power. Evil people do evil things and use money to aid them but the money itself is not the cause. Even something as small as a one pound coin can make someone happy. The truth is that different people have different reactions to money, some share, some keep and others use it to cause pain in others but once again its the individuals decision on what he or she would like to do with that money. Other evil deeds are not caused by money, but by the person who decides to cause suffering in others.

totally agree, someone knows what they are talking about😏😑

yes money is d root of all evil my fellow debators has said everythin but I just wanted to add a little point to it d real question is what is money being used for? is it being used for God’s glory? or is it being for pleasure, is it being used for pride, to support dictators, and for the purchase of arms with which to kill people or is it being used for a higher places? when all dis r being answered we c dat money is not used d right way so its because people LOVE money more dan any thin n did is very bad especially as a christain.

no because it is how u see and use money…. and u got used to it… it is in men that made money evil…. it is men who lose control and dont use it properly…. blame yourself…. it is in you…. not the money

Greed cause many problems in this world, but it’s extremely simplistically to take this wise saying at face value. This saying excludes other roots of evil: Love of power, cruelty, psychopathy, obedience, conformity, stupidity, failing to see the significance of our very brief journey on earth.

Money is not the root of all evil, it is the product of evil.

Money is not the root of all evil. To LOVE money IS the root of all evil. That is what you are trying to say.

Money is not the root of evil but money is not the truth. All the resources on planet earth are free to use, nobody owns them. If people stop being selfish and care for each other then we can live in a healthy environment without fear or worries. Well money is a system used to compensate someone for their work they have performed to produce final goods/products rather than barter/ exchange which might create disparities/differences. Social Status, religions that enforce conversion, ethnicity, gender is the root cause of evil, but how did these factors came into play. Let’s find out, people who want easy money and control resources to avoid scarcity, created such differences so that a few may be privileged to enjoy the spoils. That is why wars take place to control resources. The victors take it all and the losers suffer. People who are born in poverty commit crime because people won’t give them a chance to have a decent life. I rather suggest people stop showing off and stop being selfish because of your infidelities. Money can never buy you happiness only temporary satisfaction. Money does not come along with you when you die and money can be destroyed, it just takes seconds. The Ultimate Truth is you want to be remembered for who you are and loved. No Greater joy than being loved and showing compassion.

I like how the ppl who say money is not the root of evil have to support their argument in several elaborate paragraphs (some of which contradict themselves) .

money is the root of all evil u know why society is greedy hungry for money killing each other for it..not only. Money is causing problems in young talents around the world it is restricting young talent from achieving there dream because of fucking money I have talent in racing but cant cause of fucking money..MONEY SHOULD BURN AND EVERTHING SHOULD BE EQUAL AND FREE

The Bible says that “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”, not that money itself is bad. Even Jesus used money -He told the Pharasies to pay to Ceaser what was his and to God what was His. It’s what people do with money that is the problem, not money itself.

Everything in this material world has a direct impact on our spiritual side. Some more than others. Money has the biggest impact of all. It brings us further into this world and further out of the spiritual world. It is predefined and no one can carry a perception of money that is contrary to the popular concept. Only small children have a more innocent perception, as they do with all things due to their inability to understand.

In other words, the more affected by money a person is, the less spiritual they are. And we often hear people talking against it. But put money in their hands and watch the hypocrisy reveal itself. It’s called temptation. Satan’s number one weapon of choice. No man on Earth is above it. It has been told that only Jesus Christ was an exception to the rule. We are to flee from Sin, not act as if we are invulnerable to it. Money is inherently sinful. And I fully agree 100% with a previous comment that stated that if money was good, it would serve us. But in reality, we serve it. I als noticed a previous comment stating that “lack of” money was the root of all evil. What a silly notion. The only time I heard that before was on an episode of the Jeffersons. Lol. And it is funny in a sad kinda way.

Money has done more wrong than right. Just having it in this world paves the way for needless technology and other pointless things. It enables the greedy to hijack resources for unethical resale or reckless use. Having it around dramatically increases greed which causes crime and disregard. There is absolutely no virtue to be found where money is concerned. The hypocrites in the world send their $5 to charity thinking it helps people. They should instead be getting off their behinds and literally taking money and buying things people need. And then delivering those things in person. TIme and again, charities have been abusing trust and squandering money away. Because at least one person in any organization is greedy enough to take advantage. Even in churches. All people of the Earth stink and cannot measure up to GOD. No matter how hard they try. Because it is in us to do wrong. It is in us to feel proud of ourselves and of others. We worship idols and children, and one another. We devote ourselves to doing good deeds with family and friends, while letting the homeless guy in town rot to the ground. We sit by and watch our communities decay, expecting corrupt politicians to care. Instead, we should be doing something about it. And why do we not?

Because we think its more important to get up, go to work to a 9 to 5 slave job, working for a rich man to help him get richer, while we come home and use that money to give it to another rich man. And we do it over and over again every day. So yes. We are serving money. That is an indisputable fact. And only a person who wears money as a crutch would deny this Truth. I personally have family and friends who wear that crutch. And they are fools. Not wise at all. Hence the reason why the Bible talks about fools more than anything else. It has been told that children are fools. That is true. We can fool a child into anything. And it is extremely important that they be raised with a wise person. For only a wise person can rear a wise child. A fool can only raise a fool. So yes. Not only is it possible for an adult to be a fool. The Earth is full of them! And most are caught up in a cycle of having children and raising their own kids as fools (of course). If the people who call themselves Christians learned to sacrifice and set the example Jesus did, the fools in the world would have something to guide them out of their ignorance. But I see 99.9% of all churchgoers as hypocrites who think Sunday service will save them. GOD cares far more about what happens outside the church. He made us to live life, not hang out in million dollar social clubs, while wearing Christian name tags. Our growing should mostly take place in the Bible itself. Not under the influence of a single misinformed and misled pastor. He is bought and paid for by the church. It is a political institution that keeps itself hidden from the public. And it thrives on money most of all. Jesus didn’t go around begging for money to build a church. He was more likely to pick a big rock to stand on as a place of congregation to draw people to. Nothing fancy. Nothing that costs money. Just a gathering for the Truth to be heard. But today, money is driving the churches. It needs to look a certain way. it needs to suit a hundred purposes outside that of GOD. They play sports. They go on fun trips. They worship food. They act like its a social club. They do absolutely NOTHING for anyone but themselves. A complete falling away of the churches has already happened!!

Jesus had money. But He lived in poverty. The only man who could have money and not use it for himself!! It was strictly used to suit GOD’s purpose in His pursuit to bring others out of society. The good will of others would have made it unnecessary. But money was too precious to them. Saving that last dime was far more important to their own bellies than that of others!! That applies 100% today as well!!

the opposite of empathy (whatever that is) is the root of all evil – if at the moment of evil taking place one stopped and thought “would i want to be on the receiving end of this? no” and therefore stopped their evil doing then there would be a drastic drop in evil if empathy was at the beginning of every thought process humans made. empathy is what should be first taught at school along with learning to talk. money certainly brings evil out of people – it makes people selfish (either for themselves or their particular group/family), it plays with emotions (makes people both happy and sad) and worst of all in my opinion it is the divide that it creates between people with money and people without – that two babies born at exactly the same time, even in the same hospital can have such different upbringings due to money

Wrong and right. You are right about what happens to people when money is around. But you are wrong in the cause. Money doesn’t cause this to happen. It only reveals what is already there. If money caused evil, Jesus would have been corrupted because He had money. The rason it did not affect Him in any ill way is because His entire heart and soul was upon GOD. Something most people fall short of. Many Christians exalt Christ to separate Him from the rest of us. They deny the fact that while He was human, He was one of us. A mortal man. He was a sinless man because of the way He was conceived. And his parents knew the importance of this. Therefore, He was raised to combat Sin in His own life. He was raised truly wise. it wasn’t divinity that gave Him the strength to resist temptation. It was His devotion to GOD. And people have the ability to eradicate their own Sin. They just aren’t doing it. Because the sacrifice is too great for them. Money is the biggest pitfall of all. And until they realize that they need to live a life without it, they will never learn at all. Churches have fallen away because they are led by people who haven’t lived a truly GODly life like Jesus. The Bible is the only true Church in existence. And its right on your coffee table.

Money is damaging because it corrupts people and governments and has been the driving force behind all of the worst man-made disasters in the world. Of course, it is arguable whether money is the root of all evil, but while it could and certainly should be used for good causes, the fact remains that most money simply is not used to help others or the Earht. Instead it has made us greedy and thoughtless. Money is the root of all evil.

-The opinion of Healene Rose

in my point of view evil and world problems started in our problems with scarcity and which cause us to greed to steal and hate and make economy out of war . . haha just guessing.

Money is a root of evil yes, but money is NOT the root of all evil because it says so in the bible. The bible DOES NOT say money is the root of all evil, but, ‘love of money is the root of all evil’.

Whether it is the love of money or it is the money itself that is the root of all evil is of little difference. Without the existence of money, there would not be a love of money. And so the existence of money is a root cause of the love of money. If the love of money is the root of all evil, then so too is money itself.

Certainly it has the same meaning. The Love of Money is another word for GREED. And where there is money, there is greed. A poor person doesn’t see money for very long. It come and goes quickly. They are always behind on paying bills. And its a good thing really. As long as they are pursuing GOD’s wisdom. Otherwise, its only a matter of time until they hit the lottery and become a long term heathen.

Ummm…. You do know why money was created in the first place, right? If there was no money, things would go into chaos, worse than the “chaos” you are talking about. Just think and you will understand.

Shall I refer every one to a book by Any Rand? Atlas Shrugged, on page 412 a character in the book, Señor De Anconia, made a speech about money. He stated that money is the way to show production, is production what you consider evil? “Wealth is the way to show a mans capacity to think.” I agree. Now tell me again, money is evil why? Because we kill each other over it? Could you not also say that the fact that man has the ability to act upon conflict evil? And, in any case, if money truly is evil, what do you suggest what we do about it? How do we fix it?

Fixing it by not using money means barter and charitable sharing within communities. Barter requires a lot of effort in negotiating and having long standing trading relationships. Sharing also requires relationships. We love our money because we don’t require all these relationships. We are able to remain more disconnected from each other, requiring less to have positive reputations as well. But money allows even greater social cost in that money is able to be controlled. Monetary inflation and deflation may be manipulated to extract wealth from the economy and if desired bring nations into conflict. Debts are used to make the masses tenants as in the days of serfdom. Most are enslaved to debt; and debt is the primary means of the creation of money. Debt is only a promise to pay, created from nothing but an agreement and typically agreed upon interest which is usury when ten times financial reserves are lent out at even tiny interest rates. Commodity backed notes are a promise of exchange of a commodity such as gold in exchange for bills. Whether money is created from debt or backed by commodity is of little concern, both debt and commodities can be controlled. In time all of the world becomes controlled by a plutocratic society. One main requirement to gain and maintain control is to be willing to allow or even cause horrible evils.

It is AYN Rand, and she was a complete loon. Atlas Shrugged is possibly the most deluded piece of fiction ever written.

Money is something that we compete for like chips in a game. In game theory John Nash wrote a mathematical proof that when everyone is competing for the same resources the result is a zero sum game. If we continue to compete for money we will use all of earth’s resources. So we should ask the question: ‘Why do we actually need money?’ Most people will answer that it is to advance civilization, develop technologies to make our lives easier or to get people that don’t get along to work together. Ultimately, the answer is to get people to do jobs that they would otherwise not do. Technology has for the most part been stalled by money and caused people to abandon the craft of programming in order to rush something out before someone else make money on it. If you ask anyone in the Free Software Foundation they will tell you that they write code because the enjoy it and work because the need to eat. We all need to stop working so hard to avoid work.

Money is the root of all evil. why is said this because many of the famous stars and people now dying from killing them to take their money and everything they have. if they do not have any money i know there will be no killing and paying others to kill someone for money.

I would rather call it lack of money is the root of all evil. If you don’t have money of course you can easily get bribed,etc.

To LOVE money is the root of all evil. I think that is what you are trying to say.

Blaming money for the cause of all evils prevailing in every field is totally wrong .. Its not the money rather the greediness and dissatisfaction is the only main cause of all evils..

Sample details

Views: 1,256

For the love of money is the root of all evil Argumentative Essay

For the love Of money is the root Of all evil” is argumentative; whether this is true or not, it all depends on individual views or insights. Some may argue that it is true, while some say that it is not true. I grew up hearing that money is the root of all evil, because I mostly studied in a Christian school or institution in my elementary and high school years and that’s what they mostly teaches students. For me, money is neither evil nor good.

It is only what happens with money once it is in my hand that gives it qualities of either good or evil. Money can be many things, depending on how we relate to it. From the dictionary of business, it is defined as anything value that serves as a generally accepted medium of financial exchange, legal tender for repayment of debt, standard of value, unit of accounting measure and means to save or store purchasing power. Based on what I have understood, money is the instrument of exchange. It helps in buying and selling and also in fixing on value on things or services. It may be in metal (coin) or in paper.

ready to help you now

Without paying upfront

We need to understand the difference between a physical currency that is the basis for our lives and a material desire that is driven by greed. It is a fact that money makes the world go round and this is how we bargain for food, shelter, education, travel and just about everything in life has a price. Money is the reward for our work that allows us to join the good things in life. It is the foundation for social organizations, donation to churches or other infrastructure, charitable organization, also this is what we vive to the government by means of tax to function or to use within our communities.

From my point of view, money is not the evil. It is just the source of our survival. The money is said to be the root of evil because man have a wrong usage on it. Actually, money is just a medium of exchange. Money does not have brain to think how to hurt people. It is the thought of human that used money as a tool for evil purpose. Many of us have looked for a quick buck or two and end up doing some action that hurt another people. But they blame all the fault on money in fact is, their brain that cause he evil.

Money is not the root of all evil. In fact, the love of money is the root of all evil. When a person love money so much, he will jealous on other with more money and he tends to get more money than him in every possible way even by committed crime. A greedy man is also another negative sign of loving money. The definition of greed in the dictionary is an extreme desire for something. In the modern world today people use money to buy the things they want or desire to have. They never satisfy the amount of money they have, they want more and more.

When somebody is greedy the person becomes selfish, uncivilized, narrow minded, dishonest, unfair and to some extent become cleverer as the person will find ways to get the thing he or she desires. They steal, rob and cheat to get quick money to fulfill their greedy. All these are against the law. People are usually overwhelmed by temptation to do bad things because of greed. From the other hand, the love of money can destroy our lives. Not only money by themselves, but the desire of them. The greediness can destroy individuals, break up homes and even bring down actions.

When the love of material possessions, social status and political power are the driving force behind our desire for money, we become rooted in evil. In addition, the wrong definition towards money is also causing the evil. Many people think that money is everything, no money means no life. But when we look backward, the ancient people still can survive without money. Money is just a tool that used to exchange goods. People nowadays become slaves to the money. They willing to do anything include immoral action in order to get money. Money is not a dictator.

It is just a kind of metal or paper only. People can also make money there god. It depends on whether money is in control of the person, or the person is in control of the money. It is clear, when money is in control of person it can make a lot of harm. Money actually can help man to do good purpose. For example, money helps poor people to have a better life. Moreover, a person turns to be hardworking and energetic to work to make money for his family. The Nobel Prize would not have been there if Alfred Nobel did not have money. We don’t have houses if we don’t have money to build.

We don’t have gadgets if we don’t have money to buy. To sum up, I should say that money is not evil, as I think. It’s just the greed that’s in the hearts of those who want it for needless riches and power that gives money the label of being evil. In conclusion, money is normally the fruit of labor, but for me who is still dependent to my parents for allowance, always put in mind to list down the most important things that should spend my money with to avoid spending the money on unnecessary things. I should be in control of my money and not the money is in control of me.

Cite this page

https://graduateway.com/essay-for-the-love-of-money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-how-to/

You can get a custom paper by one of our expert writers

Understanding
Appreciation
Extended family

Check more samples on your topics

Money is the root of all evil.

Adolescence

Yes, I concur that money is the source of all wickedness.Money creates divisions between the wealthy and impoverished, leading teenagers to equate it with their own value. It also tempts individuals to compromise their principles and can even result in the dissolution of families. Despite money's association with wrongdoing, it is essential to recognize its

Is money the root of all evil?

iconoclast_ensues The phrase which you have uttered is certainly one of the more despicable thoughts. Ask yourself what is money? money is simply representative of product, that which someones mind and effort created, that which sustains man's life, so is it the product you hate, or the fact you need to produce in order to survive.

Evil for Evil’s Sake: an Analysis of the Nature of Evil in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Evil For Evil's Sake: An Analysis of the Nature of Evil In William Shakespeare's Hamlet Jake West What is it to be good? What is it to be evil? The more important question would more than likely be whether the two are decided by man's society, or worse, man's morality. At one point in time

Religious Notions of Evil and Moral Notions of Evil Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Religious Notions of Evil and Moral Notions of Evil are Not Mutually Exclusive Religious notions of evil and moral notions of evil are not mutually exclusive. This paper defines religion, morality and evil, and explains how religion and morality are compatible and have similar characteristics. Despite the compatibility, they also have their differences but this

Space Exploration Is a Waste of Money Essay Argumentative Essay

Space Exploration

Science may well give us good things. We all know Velcro came from NASA. But why bother spending all this money exploring space and finding out there was water on Mars at some point in the last few thousand years (we have water in Earth) when these same great minds could be applied to finding

School Uniforms: Beneficial or Unnecessary Evil Argumentative Essay

Essays Database

School Uniforms

School Uniforms: Beneficial or Unnecessary Evil In August, teenagers and their parents excitedly search for the latest fashion trends in malls and shopping centers to prepare for the upcoming school year. However, not all families can afford this luxury, resulting in some students wearing outdated clothes from the previous year. This poses a challenge in public

Power Is Money Money Is Power

Power is money and money is power. There are many more illustrations of this now than anytime in the yesteryear. One of the most obvious illustrations is political relations. Ross Perot was an unkown multimillionaire and his money is the lone ground that he made it into the presidential election. If a adult male who

Money Is a Good Servant but a Bad Master Argumentative Essay

Ladies and gentlemen. Dear honorable judges. It is my honor to participate in this speaking competition and share my opinions about the topic budget for life with you. To give a simple but precise definition, to budget means you may make a specific plan for using money. “Personal budget” is a phrase, to a great

Money Makes the World Go Round Argumentative Essay

They say that money makes the world go ‘round, but I’d have to disagree. Although our current world economy thrives off of selling natural resources and other items for currency, if there were no such thing as money, my life would still exist and I would still hold most of the same values dear to

Hi, my name is Amy 👋

In case you can't find a relevant example, our professional writers are ready to help you write a unique paper. Just talk to our smart assistant Amy and she'll connect you with the best match.

The Daily Show Fan Page

Explore the latest interviews, correspondent coverage, best-of moments and more from The Daily Show.

Extended Interviews

The Daily Show Tickets

Attend a Live Taping

Find out how you can see The Daily Show live and in-person as a member of the studio audience.

Best of Jon Stewart

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

New Episodes Thursdays

Jon Stewart and special guests tackle complex issues.

Powerful Politicos

The Daily Show Shop

Great Things Are in Store

Become the proud owner of exclusive gear, including clothing, drinkware and must-have accessories.

About The Daily Show

IMAGES

Money Is the Root of Evil Free Essay Example
Essay writing on money is at the root of all evils || Essay writing in english
For the love of money is the root of all evil Argumentative Free Essay
Money Is The Root Of All Evil Essay by Rubrics For Writing Essays
💣 Money is the root of all evil essay. Is money the root of all evil
Money Is The Root Of All Evil Essay

VIDEO

Essay writing on money is at the root of all evils || Essay writing in english
money is the root of All evil #tundeednut #comedy

COMMENTS

Essay on Money Is the Root of All Evil
The Notion of Money as the Root of All Evil. Money, a medium of exchange, has been a part of human civilization for thousands of years. It has been a driving force behind human progress, facilitating trade, and fostering economic development. However, it is often said that "money is the root of all evil," a phrase derived from a biblical quote.
Is Money The Root of All Evil: Analysis of The Debate
The famous quote "money is the root of all evil" originated from the Bible in 1 Timothy 6:10, which states "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.". This phrase implies that money itself is not inherently evil, but rather the greed and desire for money above all else leads to unethical behavior and problems in society.
Is Money A Root Of Evil?
With that said, money is not the root of all evil because the thing that is truly making us evil is our love for money and greed. Many people today are working in order for them to earn money for their daily necessities, for their family, for their dreams, and for the things they want. In normal circumstances, people are working eight hours a ...
Why is the love of money the root of all kinds of evil?
Notice how "money" is substituted for "love of money" and "the root of all evil" is substituted for "a root of all kinds of evil." These changes, while subtle, have an enormous impact on the meaning of the verse. The misquoted version ("money is the root of all evil") makes money and wealth the source (or root) of all evil ...
Philosophy of Money and Finance
At the heart of many sweeping criticisms of money and finance lies the question of motive. For instance, the full Biblical quotation says that "the love of money is the root of all [kinds of] evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). To have a "love of money", or (in less moralistic words) a profit motive, means to seek money for its own sake.
Is Money Really the Root of All Evil?
Updated January 22, 2024. "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Timothy 6:10). Paul warned Timothy of the correlation between money and evil. Expensive and flashy things naturally capture our human craving for more stuff ...
"The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil": What It Means and How to
Tithely. https://tithely.com. Tithely provides the tools you need to engage with your church online, stay connected, increase generosity, and simplify the lives of your staff. 1 Timothy 6:10 is often misused to teach that money is bad. Use this article to finally understand what the text means and how to preach it.
Why Is the Love of Money "The Root of All Evil"? (1 Timothy 6:10)
The phrase "the love of money is the root of all evil " is found in 1 Timothy 6:6-12. However, it's not directly taken from the Scriptures. It's actually a mis-quotation that drives a lot of people into unscriptural, scarcity-based thinking. Scripture says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and understanding the ...
The Debate on Money as the Root of Evil
Free Essay Plan. 1. Money has been a topic of discussion for ages. 2. Some view money as a tool for good, while others believe it is the root of all evil. 3. Money has been used for both good and evil throughout history. 4. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an example of money being used for good.
PDF Conventional Wisdom Tells Us . . . Money Is the Root of All Evil
Money Is the Root of All Evil This essay documents the impact of income on issues of mortality and life chances. Money, with all its alleged downfalls, can still mean the difference between life and death. When it comes to issues of wealth and poverty, conventional wisdom spins a compelling tale. On one hand, we are warned of money's ills ...
Is Love of Money Really the Root of All Evils?
Then Paul says the desire to be rich has this effect " because the love of money is the root of all evils.". The "desire to be rich" in verse 9 corresponds to "the love of money" in verse 10a. And the "many desires" of verse 9 corresponds to "all evils" in verse 10. Paul is tracing the cause of these "many desires" back ...
⇉Money is the root of all evil Essay Example
Money is the root of all evil. Yes, I concur that money is the source of all wickedness. Money creates divisions between the wealthy and impoverished, leading teenagers to equate it with their own value. It also tempts individuals to compromise their principles and can even result in the dissolution of families.
Money is The Root of All Evil Essay
Introduction. There is a common saying that states that God made man, man made money, and then money made man mad. The phrase that money is the root of all evil is one of the most common phrases in the world. Everybody in the world wants to be wealthy and successful. Poor people struggle all their life as they try to get some money.
Money is the root of all evil.' Do you agree?
Essay Plan. 1. Money has been a topic of discussion for ages. 2. Some view money as a tool for good, while others believe it is the root of all evil. 3. Money has been used for both good and evil throughout history. 4. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an example of money being used for good.
Money Is the Root of All Evil Free Essay Example
Money is rarely on the mind of a man who drops a drug into a woman's drink so he can take her home practically unconscious. I've sometimes heard "Money is the root of all evil" used as an excuse for not saving, as if to say, "I'm a better person if I'm poor.". But intentionally spending all your money as soon as you get it does ...
Is Money the Root of All Evil? What the Bible (Really) Says
1. Money itself is not the problem. It's loving money that results in a face plant. As Bible teacher R. C. Sproul explains, "While money itself is neutral, our attitude toward it can be good or evil." 1. 2. Money is not "the" root of "all" evil. In the ESV and other modern Bible translations, it only says that money is "a ...
Money Is The Root Of Evil Essay
In 1st Timothy 6:10, Timothy says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (New International Version) In modern times, this is likely known as the popular adage, "Mo' money, mo' problems". The question remains ...
Money Is The Root of All Evil Essay
Money is the Root of All Evil Essay - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. The document discusses the challenges of writing an essay on the topic "Money Is the Root of All Evil". It notes that the topic requires a nuanced understanding, as the quote is often misquoted from the Bible. It also requires delving into the historical, philosophical, and ...
Money is the Root of All Evil Essay
Drugs: the love of money is the root of all evils. Most people hold the false belief that they are unable to live without money; therefore, they condition their lives from early childhood to gain wealth by whatever means possible. This conning into the love of money has resulted in various forms of evils such as stealing, kidnapping, and ...
Money Is the Root of All Evil
The lack of money is the root of all evil. More. Money represents positive value. Money is the end product of what you did. Originally, Money was the solution to the problems (/inefficiencies in transactions) arising out of barter exchange system. Money can't be dispensed with. There's no such thing as the root of evil!
Money is the Root of All Evil- Monetary Issues Leads to...
Money is simply "anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts.". Its main purpose is an instrument of exchange, helping to buy, sell and also in fixing a value on things. Money gives one. Free Essay: MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL Although money is good at times, it is basically the root of all ...
13 Common Misconceptions About the Bible DEBUNKED
The actual verse, found in 1 Timothy 6:10, says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." So, it's not money itself but the unhealthy love for it that's the issue.
Money Is the Root of All Evil
Download. Money is the root of all evil. Many of us grew up hearing that money is the root of all evil, but that is not really what scripture teaches us. Money is neither evil nor good. It is only what happens with money once it is in our hands that gives it qualities of either good or evil. Money can be many things, depending on how we relate ...
For the love of money is the root of all evil Argumentative Essay
Money is not the root of all evil. In fact, the love of money is the root of all evil. When a person love money so much, he will jealous on other with more money and he tends to get more money than him in every possible way even by committed crime. A greedy man is also another negative sign of loving money.
The Daily Show Fan Page
The source for The Daily Show fans, with episodes hosted by Jon Stewart, Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Dulcé Sloan and more, plus interviews, highlights and The Weekly Show podcast.