It's All About the Money

          No, it’s not.

          If it was all about the money, life would make more sense.

          We buy and sell for all sorts of reasons that have little connection to the dollars gained or lost.

          If we want or need something - we buy it. We try to buy at the best price possible, but the real reason we buy is not, “about the money”. It’s about the wanting, or the needing. The same is true of selling. Everyone has sold something for less than they might have. We do this because getting rid of whatever we were selling was more important to us than the additional money we might have gained by holding out for a better price.  

           It’s obviously not; “all about the money”.

          Sellers try to price goods and services as low as they can while still making a profit. If sellers do not make a profit, they will go out of business. If their prices are too high, customers will shop elsewhere - and the seller will go out of business. It’s a tricky balancing act. Sales Tax makes it even trickier. Tax mandates, imposed by government, make doing business more difficult. They also guarantee higher prices.

          Taxes are: “all about the money”.   

          We make decisions for many reasons Sometimes it is about the money. More often, it is about questionable ideas, cravings, showing-off, brand loyalty, and many other peculiar personal persuasions.

          In the entire history of Hollywood, “Family Films” have delivered more “bang for the buck” than any other type of film. Many times, more. Why doesn’t Hollywood produce only “Family Films”? It can’t be because, “It’s all about the money”. No. it’s because Hollywood aspires to high art, political relevance and cultural influence. If they lose money, or make less than they could, it’s a sacrifice they’re prepared to make. The money be dammed!

          Some years back, the Country Music Industry released an album titled, Down from the Hills. It featured the traditional songs, and stylings, that many country music fans regard as, “True”, country music. It sold a gazillion copies. It also made a gazillion dollars. Surely, the Industry must then have produced a lot more albums of this kind.

          They did not.

          They went right back to the same pop/rock schmaltz-with-cowboy hats, that had already proven its power to sell fewer albums. The money be damned! They had a vision to pursue - or, something. Whatever they were thinking, they didn’t seem to be thinking that, “It’s all about the money”.

          So, why are so many people convinced that money is the prime mover in all human decisions? Is it a projection from their own inclinations? Is it the churlish notion that nobody does anything unless they’re getting paid for it? Have they thought about it, at all, or are they just repeating what they have heard from so many others, so many times? I don’t know.

          Would the world be better off if there was no money?

          We already know the answer to that. For most of human history there was no money. When you wanted food, or shelter, or clothing, you had to produce it by your own effort. I suppose there is some romantic appeal to that way of life. I don’t think very many of us would willingly return to it.

          Barter was the first attempt to get things you didn’t have to produce by your own effort. Of course, you still had to produce something to barter. Barter has other problems, as well. Let’s say you have ten deerskins to trade. Your trading partner has three conch shells, and one flint axe. Neither of you want what the other is offering. Wouldn’t it be better to trade with symbolic tokens representing some agreed upon value? Then you could selectively buy only the items you want. And, you wouldn’t need to cart around all those deerskins.

          Money is a symbolic token representing some agreed upon value.

          How is that bad? It’s convenient, and it’s ethically neutral.

          When people say, “It’s all about the money”, they usually say it with a sideways twist of their head, and a contemptuous sort of tone.

          I don’t think they’re talking about money at all. I think they’re talking about mean, greedy selfish grafters - who didn’t get that way because money made them do it.  They got that way because it’s their nature to be mean, greedy, selfish grafters.

          Any excuse would do.

          It’s not, “all about the money”.  It’s about a nothingness in the soul. 

    

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