In this day and age, worldwide economic progress has raised standards of living throughout the world. Naturally, such progress inevitably breeds feelings of envy and jealousy, and people all over the world are overcome with a desire to become rich or richer than their neighbors. This is a trap of misery. In fact, I believe that people who fall in love with money inevitably live in misery, irrespective of how they may use their financial resources, including any so-called philanthropic endeavors.
First, it is important to acknowledge the age-old saying, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I have seen many examples of this throughout my career life. For example: During my tenure as an accountant at a corporation whose leadership were obsessed with and loved money, and they were willing to do whatever it takes to make the company books look good. They lied to investors, they cheated their employees, and they hid information about product performances. Their objective was to increase the company stock price through lies, deceptions, and the concealment of information as well as disinformation and misinformation about their products and services. What these people did was evil, because they hurt participants, including investors, employees, and vendors, to name a few. When it became increasingly clear to me what the leadership doing was evil, I resigned from my job, for I was unwilling to take part in their evil deeds. Indeed, the door is opened for evil if and when you begin to fall in love with money, as this love affair with money ultimately breeds envy, jealousy, and more evil.
Second, it is essential to understand that the definition of a good life varies with each individual. For me, a good life is a life that applies honesty and integrity in the pursuit of one’s passion. Whether that passion eventually brings wealth or not is not an issue for me, because I would rather die poor with integrity than gain wealth through lies and deceptions. For example, I am currently developing a website to teach English. It is currently not a financially successful venture, even though I have poured all my money and my heart into this project. Yet, I have no regret, because this venture has been an opportunity for me to express my creativity and passion to teach English. While not financially successful, this website actually has helped me to teach English in ways that bring beautiful results to my IELTS, TOEIC, and Cambridge students. For sure, I would rather die with this website completely developed, yet not financially successful, than working for evil people who love money so much that they have no qualm about the damage that they can do to others.
In conclusion, while it is not wrong to want to make a lot of money, something is definitely evil about a person when he or she makes money the number one priority. Money is a means, not the end.