One of my favourite speeches is one given by the fictional character Francisco d'Anconia in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
The speech is given at a party where Francisco is surrounded by enemies.
Another guest, Bertram Scudder suggests that money is the root of all evil.
It is a common accusation levelled at wealth and one that finds its own roots in the bible.
Condemners of money often site the passage where Jesus considered that a camel had more chance of passing through the eye of a needle than a rich man of gaining paradise.
(Matthew 19.
23-24).
While Bible scholars debate about just what Jesus meant by a needle the rest of us are left with a fairly clear impression that it is difficult for the rich to get to Heaven.
While Francisco would not dispute Jesus' judgement that getting to Heaven is difficult for rich men, he would argue against the accepted wisdom that with this statement Jesus was condemning wealth, for as Francisco rightly points out, money is really just paper.
Money is paper that we humans have put an agreed value upon.
We use it to trade goods and services.
Rather than saying my typing is worth half a sheep, we give both my typing and your sheep agreed values.
This means that you don't have to carry your sheep with you everywhere you go and I can buy bread instead of sheep when you pay for my typing.
Money simplifies transactions.
Money in and of itself is neither good nor evil, just as a hammer is neither good nor evil.
Money is just a tool.
Francisco's argument is that it is not being rich that damns you but getting rich through force or thievery.
The corruption of the means is the corruption of the end.
If you obtain your riches through fraud, through trickery, through lowering your standards then your money will not bring you joy.
It will only remind you of your treachery.
Francisco warns instead that money requires of those who wish to keep it, the highest moral standard.
You must be courageous and proud.
If you are ashamed of your money, there will always be looters prepared to relieve you of your guilt.
If however you realise that money is made through people's thoughts and actions and that it is the creation of the best power within you and it enables you to buy the best that others have made, then you will love money and you will deserve it and you will keep it.
The speech is given at a party where Francisco is surrounded by enemies.
Another guest, Bertram Scudder suggests that money is the root of all evil.
It is a common accusation levelled at wealth and one that finds its own roots in the bible.
Condemners of money often site the passage where Jesus considered that a camel had more chance of passing through the eye of a needle than a rich man of gaining paradise.
(Matthew 19.
23-24).
While Bible scholars debate about just what Jesus meant by a needle the rest of us are left with a fairly clear impression that it is difficult for the rich to get to Heaven.
While Francisco would not dispute Jesus' judgement that getting to Heaven is difficult for rich men, he would argue against the accepted wisdom that with this statement Jesus was condemning wealth, for as Francisco rightly points out, money is really just paper.
Money is paper that we humans have put an agreed value upon.
We use it to trade goods and services.
Rather than saying my typing is worth half a sheep, we give both my typing and your sheep agreed values.
This means that you don't have to carry your sheep with you everywhere you go and I can buy bread instead of sheep when you pay for my typing.
Money simplifies transactions.
Money in and of itself is neither good nor evil, just as a hammer is neither good nor evil.
Money is just a tool.
Francisco's argument is that it is not being rich that damns you but getting rich through force or thievery.
The corruption of the means is the corruption of the end.
If you obtain your riches through fraud, through trickery, through lowering your standards then your money will not bring you joy.
It will only remind you of your treachery.
Francisco warns instead that money requires of those who wish to keep it, the highest moral standard.
You must be courageous and proud.
If you are ashamed of your money, there will always be looters prepared to relieve you of your guilt.
If however you realise that money is made through people's thoughts and actions and that it is the creation of the best power within you and it enables you to buy the best that others have made, then you will love money and you will deserve it and you will keep it.