Money Is Not Evil -By John Chizoba Vincent

The concept of money is man made. Money was created by man as a medium of exchange, as a legal means for buying and selling of goods and services within a geographical area. Likewise, It is a means of payment for things bought by individuals. However, If cigarettes and mackerel can be used as means of payment in replace of paper currency in some countries of the world then, what is money to you?  From my view, Money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange either in buying and selling of a particular goods or for payment of a service rendered for a particular course by anyone.  And any medium of exchange is anything that is widely accepted as a means of payment by people of that particular region. For instance, in the old Eastern region of Nigeria, the Igbos precisely, was known to use cowries in those days for payment on whatever they bought in the market this replaced trade by barter then.

While citing Roman as a case study, lets look at what was used as a medium of exchange in their empire under the communist party rule in the 1980s. Under Communist Party rule in Romania in the 1980s, for example, Kent cigarettes served as monetary exchange, everyone used it for paying for whatever they bought. It serves as a medium of exchange for the people at that period of time and the fact that these people could used this Cigarettes as a medium for the exchange of goods and services made them money in that vicinity even though it might not be accepted by other people in a different area but within that geographical entity, people recognized the Cigarettes as money and they were used for selling and buying of their daily needs.

As time goes on, different countries started looking for a way to print paper money that could be recognized within their territories and in other countries as their money and hence the advancement of money within countries of the world started taking place. In this regards, economic money systems began to be developed for the function of exchange. Hence, the process of using money as currency provides a centralized medium or channels for shopping, betting, exchanging, buying and selling in markets, in clubs and pubs. And this was first established to replace bartering system that was invoked as of that period of time. Gradually, bartering system was replaced and people started buying and selling with different currencies which was made available by their authorities. One could go to another country, change his currency to that of the country he is and buy whatever he wants to buy easily and faster with his money.

Currency in monetary form helps to provide a system for overcoming the double coincidence of needs and probably individual wants like we have in the bartering system of trade. In this, the double coincidence of wants is an ubiquitous problem in a barter system, where in order for individuals to trade in the market or anywhere, each party must have something that the other party wants or needs. In some cases, one may want something and would not be able to get it around in Barter economy because the other party does not have it and this really brought in the need for paper money so that all parties could use it and willingly accept an agreed-upon monetary currency, they can avoid this problem associate with Barter economy.

Money is a liquid asset used in the settlement of transactions. It functions based on the general acceptance of its value within a governmental economy and internationally through foreign exchange. The current value of monetary currency is not necessarily derived from the materials used to produce the note or coin. Instead, value is derived from the willingness to agree to a displayed value and rely on it for use in future transactions. This is money’s primary function: a generally recognized medium of exchange that people and global economies intend to hold, and are willing to accept as payment for current or future transactions and there is no evil abounds with it or around it for it functionality.

In order to be most useful as money, a currency should be: fungible, durable, mobility, portable, recognizable, stable.

These properties of money as listed above  ensure that the benefit of reducing or eliminating the transaction cost of the double coincidence of wants is not outweighed by other types of transaction costs associated with that specific goods and services. And the only evil some people have caused with money is Laundering it. Money laundering damages financial sector institutions that are critical for economic growth, promoting crime and corruption that slow economic growth, reducing efficiency in the real sector of the economy. Money laundary is not good for the economy to thrive at any given period of time.

So, since money in it unique ways was created by man and it serves these purpose for mankind, there is nothing wrong having enough of it. Religiously, the holy book did not condemned money. But it says that the love of money is the root of all evil. It is never said that Money is evil but the love of it. This 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. Looking at the above statement, we could see that the LOVE is stressed in order to pass a definite meaning to it that too much of everything is bad. In this case, money is good, it answers all things. it solves alot of problems. It restores hope and build dreams but the love of it that makes person wants to go extra miles, to kill who is to be killed, to damage who is to be damaged; is the evil we are looking at. So therefore, we are to be contented with whatever we have because we bring nothing into this world and we are not going away with anything when we die.

Money is not necessarily evil but the love of it is, evil.

©John Chizoba Vincent.