"Money is a powerful drug; it is psychologically stimulating. It motivates and invigorates people. But it also stresses them out. It can be the cause of great joy or great woe. It is pervasive. Yet it is also resides underground, within the undulating ocean of the unconscious, to be left unappreciated or unacknowledged. Money is hated and condemned, and at the same time cherished and celebrated.
Many people see money as outright evil, as the catalyst of unending greed. It has thus assumed this suspicious shape over time and has been molded into a taboo topic. It has been considered so devilish that it spurred Ayn Rand to eloquently rise to its defense. In Atlas Shrugged, through the voice of Francisco D’ANconia, she said,
'So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?'
