When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its true value. The love of money as a possession—as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life—will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.
John Maynard Keynes, “The Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”, published 1930
If only! What a civilized world that would be. I am only half kidding when I say I fear this will only happen when AI takes over and replaces flawed humanity.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish.
ReplyDeletestill have a long way to go on that one
ReplyDeleteIt's another kind of hoarding, isn't it? And we treat hoarding as a mental illness -- so why not greed?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will ever happen, "when the accumulation of wealth is no longer of social importance..." Or, if it actually did happen, trying to conceive of what would bring such a thing to reality is more than I can understand without it being preceded some kind of unbearable cataclysm.
ReplyDeleteYikes.
ReplyDeleteDistasteful, disgusting, criminal, greedy, lacking compassion - fine world we've made in chasing the almighty dollar, especially when it means we enslave our fellow humans for miserable wages, if any, and withold medical care when people can't pay.....miserable outlook.
ReplyDeleteKeynes was on the money (pun not intended! :-D).
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
And yet Doctor Johnson says, "There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money." Mind you he says an awful lot more about wealth, notably how wealth's presence or absence can affect our lives.
ReplyDeleteThrough a number of pleasing accidents in my life I have money though, being a Brit, I would never admit this openly; I prefer the euphemism "comfortable". And that's the point, euphemisms are a form of moral corruption and thus am I corrupted.
Ah, worship of wealth and celebrity -- will they ever be reduced to a proper degree of importance?
ReplyDeleteThat turned out well then, didn't it? What was it Mr Ghandi said: you have to be the change you want to see in the world (or something like that). We're not very good at that, are we?
ReplyDeleteI miss your pictures.
DeleteI'll try to put a few up in a new blog when I can. I'm afraid I've been a bit busy dealing with a medical hassle over the past few months, so I've been a bit more uncommunicative than normal - and let's face it, my 'normal' wasn't exactly loquacious anyway.
Delete...now being added occasionally on: beingtherenc.blogspot.com
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