Money should not exist; new system for economy needed now
by Nia J.
"Money, money, money, moneyyy, MONEYYYYYY!" is a catchy chorus we recognize from the amazing group the O’jays, which speaks to the ever present thoughts of money that society constantly makes us have on our mind. It has many nicknames including mulah, dough, green, cheddar, buck, bread and many more. But what really is money, and do we really need it or is it a social construct? Is money really as crucial to our world as we think? Everybody in this world knows about money and lots of people view money as a good thing. I mean, it can get you all kinds of things that can make you happy. You can go see your favorite artists with it, get some of your favorite foods and drinks, buy stylish clothes you like, go to amusement parks, etc. There are so many amazing things to experience when you have money but money brings a lot of bad things that make our world scary. In this editorial, I argue that money is totally superfluous and that we would all be better off without it.
One reason why money shouldn’t exist is because Money is the cause of many, many deaths. This doesn’t just apply to humans but animals and plant life as well. There are lots of examples of these. People committing suicide because of their bad financial situation. People committing homicide to people who paid them back for something. People killing others due to their jealousy of their money. People killing animals for their body parts to make money. People cutting down lots of trees and leaving tree animals homeless for money. People putting dying patients above others who have waited longer because they bribed with money the doctors to move them up the waiting list for an organ transplant. People dying simply beacsue they can’t afford to get the things they need to live.These are all examples of the Grim Reapers correlation with the green. None of these things help our world, we all want the world to be a better place
Another reason why I think money shouldn’t exist is because money causes a lot of negativity. Think about how many disputes and fights you have seen where money was the devil on the shoulder. All the jealousy caused by money. All the resentment caused by money. All the arrogance caused by money. All the unfairness caused by money. How does any of this make the world a better place? Negativity is something that should not be around. It's not good for anyone. Constant negativity eats away at people and things.
A final reason why I think money shouldn’t exist is because it changes people and it makes problems worse. I once was watching a fun little show called 100 Humans where they do many experiments by asking questions or doing tests on 100 humans. In the show there was one challenge where two groups (A and B) had to build a tower out of toothpicks. There were groups within the two groups and the group who built the highest tower won. The catch was group A was doing it for fun and group B was competing against each other for a cash prize. Group A and B were unknowingly competing against each other for an experiment about money. They were all unaware that the other group had different circumstances. Spoiler alert: Group A did much better. The results showed that the group without the money prize had more fun, they got the tasks done quicker and the vibe in the room was overall more positive than the money group's room. On the other hand, the money room had a more serious negative vibe. People were getting mad with each other. The groups were nervous and had more trouble building. I told this example to show how money can change people and make things worse and not better because people become unnecessarily competitive when they should be working together.
I argue that money is causing lots of bad but there is another side of the argument that says money is good. This side of the coin (pun intended!) argues that money causes structure, gives people opportunities, gives people motivation, gets things done in the world more effectively, and can make people happy with the things it can buy. Structure is something that humans will alway yearn for or else things will go to chaos. People believe that money keeps people in line. It makes the world go round and operate smoothly. People also say it provides people with opportunities, lots of people have been able to chase their biggest dreams because of money. People argue that it is a great motivator. If you say you can get money after something, people tend to work harder. People argue that it gets things done like in jobs, if people didn’t get paid who would wanna go to work? People can also get items and do things that can make them happy and be amazing life experiences. That's the other hand to my argument. What do you think?
“Do you think that money should exist? '' I asked Jasmine, a freshman at Airport. She responded, “I think money should exist because despite money causing a lot of problems for a lot of people and like getting jobs is kinda hard, but if people work to do things , they’ll get paid and it’ll be worth it. If you were working just to work, and you wouldn’t gain nothing out of it, there would be no point in working because like you have to work to get money and that's the reason why people work, TO GET MONEY! But if there's no reason behind it, nobody would be working and nobody would actually be helping out with the Earth or anything because like you would have nothing to gain out of it. So that's why I think money shouldn’t exist.”
Amare, also a freshman at Airport High was asked the same question, to which she responded, “I think money should exist because some things you gotta work for, I mean, you can't just get everything because you want it. That’s like what Jasmine was saying, you don't just go to work for nothing, and just get paid nothing, cause if that was me I would’ve been mad, so, yeah.”
Like the late and great Micheal Jackson said, ''Money/ Money/ Lie for it/ Spy for it/ Kill for it/ Die for it/……They don’t care they’d do me for the money/ They don’t care they use me for the money/ Even sell my soul to the Devil.” He didn’t sing that for nothing. Money can cause us to die or kill, it causes lots of negativity and it changes people and makes problems worse. So I’m asking you to really stop and think. How far would you go for some dough? Does money make you a better person or a worse person, really?