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# Money is Justice

5 November 2024·2419 words·12 mins

# Money is Justice
#

This concept has been kicking around in my head for months now. It’s simple. It says what it means and means what it says: “Money is justice.”

> Money, get back

> I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack

> Money, it’s a hit

> Ah, don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit

> Money, it’s a crime

> Share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie

> Money, so they say

> Is the root of all evil today

> Money - Pink Floyd

# The Love of Money or the Money of Love?
#

> For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

> 1 Timothy 6:10

Money itself is not the root of all evil. It’s not really anything but a mere tool. But when you love it more than you love the people that helped you make it you might forget that your empire was built on the backs of the people you exploited. And let me tell you they’re not happy that you took advantage of them. You can pay people to tell you otherwise but it cannot erase the truth written in their hearts. I sometimes pity people who are super rich and surround themselves with yes people. They will never hear any problems with them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have problems. True love, loyalty and respect tell a person when they are wrong, and that person will listen. Otherwise you just have a narcisist tyrant.

Conversely, as we’ll see later, money can be used as a tool to better one’s own life (without costing another’s) and to improve others and invest in a higher cause.

Large corporations have all the power in the US. Why? Because they can afford better lawyers. Why? Because they have more money than individuals. Buy a politician or the whole government if you’d like. Everyone’s got a price. Citizens United in the US Supreme court made corruption legal, so the only reason you wouldn’t do it is you lack the funds to do so. Rich people get to live above the law and face no legal reprocussions or at most negligible fines.

> I’mma tell you what you told me, cash rules everything around me

> Dolla Dolla Bill ya’ll

> Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) - Wyclef Jean ft. Akon, Lil Wayne, Niia

## The Rich Get Richer
#

Why does it feel like the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer? Why do people get hardened hearts, become cynical and are forced to do work we hate like the eponymous “sweetest girl” in Wyclef’s retro banger? Sure the political corruption accounts for some of it, but all lies require at least two people: one to tell the lie, but another to believe the lie. We cannot control the huxsters and charlatans that seek to decieve, swindle, distract, divide, and destroy us for their own gain. We can control our own lives and outlook.

Perhaps it’s actually because we aren’t living like we truly understand that money is justice.

Let’s hear some wisdom from my life’s greatest teacher Jesus and then discuss.

> 19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

> 22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

> 24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

> Matthew 6:19-24

Here’s a great visual exploration of this teaching courtesy of The Bible Project

What things you store up are where your heart is. If you trust God to sustain you instead of your own things and ability to provide you’ll find that you have your needs met in abundance and you’ll find the joy of an eternal life right now!

Jesus also talks on another occasion about how the money that we are entrusted with is important by what we do with it, rather than what it is itself. You see if you believe as I do that God created everything, what purpose does he have with money? He could literally create more out of thin air at will! But God knows that our hearts motives are exposed by what we do with money.

> 14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver[b] to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

> 16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

> 19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

> 21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together![c]’

> 22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

> 23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

> 24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

> 26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

> 28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

> Matthew 25:14-30

Again here Jesus is saying that in this life we will be entrusted with money, things of some value, but all of which pale in comparison to the riches of the creator and his eternal joy. If you have little but you do little with it, what sense is there in giving you more? We must expand our concept of money, of resources and seek to increase their value through generosity.

## Lifestyles of the Rich and Unscrupulous
#

If money can buy favor with corrupt governments and set you and your family up for all needs and desires to be met why bother to serve God first? I think Jesus actually agrees with you. But there will come a day when all your earthly treasure will be no more. It may be a hurricane that comes in and topples and washes away all your homes or businesses, it may be a pandemic or a health problem like the cancer that took Steve Jobs’s life. Eventually death, loss, will come to us all and no amount of money can protect you from that. If money is your God, then you’ll eventually find is it merciless and cruel.

However, there’s really not that many people with enough money to really justify that mindset. And for those that do have that wealth, they really ought to be taxed back to a slightly more modest value. I don’t hate rich people. If you do well in life, by all means, enjoy the rewards. But it’s never really satisifying. That’s why the richest people are often the most greedy. And it comes at the grave cost of the rest of us. So I’d suggest that we make billionaires cease to exist. Don’t get me wrong, leave the people alive, but simply tax wealth beyond $999,999,999 at 100%. At some point even they don’t know what to do with it. One can only buy so many yachts, ya know?

Then take that money and put it to good use. Did you know that Gen Z has an unemployment rate that is at least twice every other age cohort? Older generations should be comfortable retiring and living their latter years in dignity instead of keeping their nose to the grindstone. The housing market is barely affordable for anyone right now. Groceries are necessary for life but many people are unable to comfortably afford enough. Layoffs are happening in all jobs and only ever do one thing well - supress wages. That’s right layoffs don’t consisently even increase value or productivity with the company.

## Litigious Recourse
#

While it may seem that those with lots of money are just above the law and do whatever they want at all costs, this is not totally the case. We are nothing if not a litigious people in the US. And it may actually be a way of seeking true justice. Most individual law suits do little to nothing. Corporations and rich people can afford to make you settle out of court in arbitration which allows them to hide whatever egregious deeds they do. Often the punishment or settlement comes out to be a price that is probably substantial for the alleged victims but barely a slap on the wrist for the alleged offending corporation. That’s where class action suits and repeated law suits are making a difference. When enough fees and fines pile up, it becomes a business decision, and when it becomes a business decision the corporation must decide that it’s not worth continuing their offending action, or suffer going out of business if it becomes expensive enough.

## The Case for Reparations
#

There’s a lot of people that are mad about diversity and inclusion right now. I think the problem is that their demographic has been neglected or mistreated as well. So to that I say, why not actually just truly help everyone? There’s also a problem where for social minorities people have tried to increase equality. The problem is that until we treat each other as humans, fully, with all equity we are not doing justice and ultimately will fail at any unifying action. Equity is equal pay for equal work. If a woman is hired because you don’t want to afford a man’s salary, you cannot afford to hire the woman even if you find a way to get away with paying her less.

Similarly people of color have systemic disadvantages built-in because of the economic opportunity and wealth transferal differences between them and their white peers. If your family has multiple generations of unpaid slave labor, then barely paid share-cropping servitude, then lower paying work, you’re highly unlikely to inherit anything other than debt, grief, and anxiety. Money will never erase the dark history of slavery and exploitation of people, but it’s a start and could go a long way to providing opportunities to descendants that are alive now and still have time to live and enjoy the respect of society.

## Final Take Away
#

Many of these ideas are a bit abstract and cannot be accomplished simply or easily without many people working together. So let’s focus on some things that you can start today:

- Be wise with your money. Ask for enough, know your worth, and accept nothing less. Also don’t ask for too much.
- Communicate boundaries and problems you have with people you trust.
- Equity > Equality. The easiest way to practice this is to ask if someone looks different, has a different culture, has different chromosomes, has a different family, has a different lifestyle are you still valuing them as a person of any other group and are you paying them the same for the same work?
- Put your money to work. Invest it wisely. Give generously once your needs are met.
- Trust in a higher power (I suggest God/Jesus, but I recognize that you may have your own different faith)
- Most people won’t be super rich (for example Billionaires) so don’t advocate for them. They can pay plenty of lobbyists to whine on their behalf
- Consider advocating a tax policy that makes it impossible for people to accumulate more than $999,999,999. Even half of that is way more money than one needs.
- Consider advocating for progressive taxes like America had from the 1940’s until 1980’s.
- Let go of trickle-down neo-liberal economics. They just don’t work.
- Create more education opportunities that are available to lower income people.
- Stop advocating for, allowing, or condoning monopolistic business practices. This includes opposing mergers and aquisitions in general, and certainly at the larger level.
- Honor people in transactions: pay them what they are worth and hold them accountable to their promises.
- Most importantly make sure that you use money as a tool that reflects your greatest value being the intangibles that make life worthwhile like your faith, your loved ones, and improving people’s lives.

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