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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that money is the root of all evil?

39 replies

Beeinalily · 10/09/2025 11:33

Well most evil, at least. Don't believe me? Have a quick look on here, there are non important things like CFs not paying their way, heartbreaking threads about money actually dividing families and everything in between. I almost feel lucky to not have any!

OP posts:

Marshmallow4545 · 10/09/2025 12:20

weighinin · 10/09/2025 12:05

I think the history of the world shows that when regimes come along who condone murder, many people gleefully join in or silently turn away.

Look at the holocaust. Slaughter of that scale (estimates of up to 40% of all the Jews in the world were murdered in the Holocaust) only happens because huge number of ordinary citizens enable it or partake in it. The relatively small number of actual uniformed nazis cannot commit this level of mass murder without widespread support from ordinary people.

Show quote history

Ah but here you are simply making my point but in a different way. I used murder as an example in my post as it is as close as we can get to a commonly held strong belief that isn't based on religion in the UK today. The Nazis were able to override this belief in many Germans through tapping into other less palatable beliefs that Germans undoubtedly held regarding anti-Semitism, racism and ableism. The point being, religion and money weren't really at the heart of the 'evil'. It was other beliefs and ideology that fuelled the hatred.

It is also important to remember that there was resistance to the Holocaust from many Germans who risked their lives for their belief that the Holocaust was morally wrong. I would argue that the majority of these people were also not motivated by money or organised religion but by strong, intrinsic moral beliefs.

Basically strong beliefs are a key part of the human condition and impossible to stamp out. They are the root of evil but also the root of kindness and good in the world.

Octavia64 · 10/09/2025 12:22

There was evil long before there was money

Pollqueen · 10/09/2025 12:40

No, the love of money is the root of all evil. Big difference

ResusciAnnie · 10/09/2025 12:44

Money is also the source of a lot of good - small scale for example, I wouldn’t have my gorgeous kids and house if we didn’t have money.

Large scale, a billionaire or 2 could solve the worlds problems if they fancied it. So that’s would be a good thing. Sadly to be a billionaire you have to be a bit immoral (even you Taylor!)

TomatoSandwiches · 10/09/2025 12:44

No, I think men are.

NuffSaidSam · 10/09/2025 13:25

I don't think so. I think power and powerlessness are bigger drivers of evil acts.

And probably a different in brain chemistry/structure. I think 'evil' will be diagnosable eventually.

Imbrocator · 10/09/2025 16:06

Greed is the root of a lot of evil - money is just a practical way of assigning value to things.

ComfortFoodCafe · 10/09/2025 16:33

Love of money is the root of evil.

CoffeeCantata · 10/09/2025 17:35

Do you mean wealth or greed rather than money? Money is just a convenient form of exchange.

Before money was invented are you saying that everyone was lovely and kind?

I think there’s strong archaeological evidence that prehistory was as bloody, violent and genocidal as modern life.

Original poster

Beeinalily · 11/09/2025 11:25

Well, when you get to the root of most bad things it comes down to greed/avarice. Just ask yourself who wins in the case of war, for instance. The arms manufacturers, oil producers etc.

OP posts:

Drachuughtty · 11/09/2025 12:51

No I think inadequate parenting is the root of all evil, but we could probably discuss this for months and not agree! Money sure causes a heck of a lot of problems.

latetothefisting · 11/09/2025 16:29

Marshmallow4545 · 10/09/2025 11:44

I find discussions like this a bit strange because 'money' is just basically how we allocate resources in modern society. If you somehow abolished money then we would still be in the position where humans are fighting over often limited resources. If you look to the animal kingdom you will see that the fight for survival is often resource related so this isn't something unique to humans.

The same goes with religion really. Religion is just shorthand for deeply held beliefs. Almost every human in the world holds beliefs of this nature even if they don't relate to a particular god or religion. For example, almost all of us fundamentally think that murder is morally wrong. If a new regime came into power that suddenly condoned murder then I imagine many of us would be prepared to fight to reject this ideology because we believe it's fundamentally wrong. This is really no different to religious people fighting for their beliefs. Beliefs are a fundamental aspect of the human condition and won't just be removed if we stop all organised religion.

exactly.
If we didn't have 'money' people would still be competing over who had the most food/most cows/biggest house etc.

OdeToTheNorthWestWind · 11/09/2025 16:51

I think the love of power is the root of evil, whether that power is conferred by money, religion, politics or just being bigger and stronger than others. I can't member who said it ( but I'm sure Mumsnetters will know) :

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

InMySpareTime · 11/09/2025 17:07

Money needs to keep moving to work properly. When a minority of people collect more money than they could possibly ever use, and take that money out of society, society breaks down.
Huge pools of stagnant money do grow, but they don’t grow anything good.

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