THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL?

H/t I Own the World

There is much to disagree with Ayn Rand about. I don't agree with her Godless philosophy of Objectivism which puts man in the place of God in a sort of Darwinistic version of the "Rights of Kings". She seems to suppose that some are made for greatness while others are made for slavery and that the market will always lead to truth. While these ideas are not completely without merit, the removal of God and original sin and concupiscence and all the other parts of reality she denies distorts the reality she proposes so badly that it must be denied.

That being said, her ideas about the nature of money as described in the video above are essentially correct. In the end money, and wealth, are one thing and one thing only, a representation of labor. When I go to work I trade my labor for money. Someone else's labor created the money I worked for and it was traded to my employer because of his labor, either through direct application of his labor our through a product his labor supplied.

This is why the income tax is so abhorrent. It makes a claim on my money, which in reality is my labor. If someone or some entity can force you to supply your labor to them through force it is slavery. In essence, the income tax makes slaves of us all. The government is the owner and the IRS is the overseer, ready to strike the whip any time we get out of line.

We need to begin to understand something about the true nature of the money we so willingly hand over to thieves and tyrants. It's not just a piece of paper. In many ways it's a part of our souls.