Does money spawn corruption, infesting people with dishonesty, thievery and other evil things; or has human nature corrupted a basic necessity?

Money is indeed the most important thing in the world; and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.

George Bernard Shaw (Thee Irrational Knot)

The Theory versus the Practice

We live in a capitalist society. Loosely translated, we exchange money to get things and get paid money for doing things. And some people have lots of money and other people don’t have that much. And almost all of us want more money.

Money is basically supposed to be an advanced exchange system. At least that’s how I (the mathematically or monetarily challenged) view it. If this device, deep down, is so simple: does money corrupt people or do people corrupt money?

In the very basic sense, we get paid money for doing a job (whether we are getting paid enough for our jobs is another article entirely).  The money we get paid is then used to maintain our society and country (that’s apparently what taxes are for, potholes excluded); living expenses, roofs over our heads; a well-stocked fridge and the occasional bubble bath.  And this is when things start getting a bit strange.

Filthy Lucre

If I was to find a handbag full of money on a walk through a park and there was no one around, and no name but a bank slip; would I pick it up and give it to the bank or keep it for myself? And if I kept that filthy lucre for myself without trying to trace the owner, I would be taking something that didn’t belong to me (stealing); I would be dishonest; and I would be greedy (thinking of all the things I could buy with this unearned and undeserved loot). 

I would be corrupted. But was it the money or my choice that did the corrupting? And, for future reference, I handed the handbag with all that lovely money in at the bank…

The Bad Money

There are those people who have so much money that over the last 25 years a whole new level has developed to describe them: multi-millionaire, billionaire, centibillionaire, jetset, heiress, socialite, child star, gold digger and trust fund kids. They are society’s elite and royalty. Hence their behaving badly receives far more attention.

A number of celebrities have reached their eye-catching status not because of great achievements, sporting accomplishments or cinematic creation; they just have a lot of money. These people have never seen a price tag that had to be bargained or saved for. And, most importantly, they never worked for the money they have. 

Paris Hilton

 Let’s choose an example that everyone knows: Paris Hilton. Her father is a successful businessman and hotelier and his daughter has grown up in a cocoon of elegance and advantage. But the way she decided to announce her presence to the world was not with great business acumen or astonishing skill, but with a leaked pornographic display of her and her boyfriend euphemistically titled, One Night in Paris. 

This lewd display rocketed Paris into the public eye. Her reputation quickly became cemented as a ditzy, spoilt and very shallow part of the genetic pool as she launched her reality show, The Simple Life. In it she and another heiress, Nicole Richie (Lionel Richie’s adopted daughter), travelled through ordinary America experiencing the average lives of the ‘little people’. Their behaviour was shocking in its immaturity. 

Some have billions in the bank with not a chance of spending it all in one lifetime; does this corrupt by removing the need to prove yourself, to work, to save and sacrifice and achieve?

Tumbling Down

Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are two other celebrity examples of corruption that is impossible to ignore. But did the money corrupt them? Both of them shot to fame by producing the type of entertainment that everyone wanted: catchy songs and cute movies. They performed well and received good dividends.  

But then the cracks started to appear: they started behaving strangely and using drugs and alcohol in public. In an industry where you work to reach the level of your entire life being on display, that can’t be an excuse to crumble under pressure. 

Their lives became a cautionary tale about the evils of money. Though I am inclined to believe that the cracks didn’t appear in their lives, but in their personalities.  This allowed greed to come in and take over, especially since most of their behaviour seemed designed to elicit public and media attention.

Crumbling of the Human

I would put forward as an argument that their greed for not only more money, but also more time in the spotlight was what caused the crumbling of the human.  This is especially so when you contrast these two with amazing actresses such as Emily Watson (Harry Potter series) and Kristen Stewart (Twilight series). 

They are also young, beautiful and iconic. But the naughtiest news I could find about them was that Kristen enjoys Greek tragedies and is dating her Twilight co-star Robert Pattison. No flashing, no drunkenness in public and no pornography. 

Root of all Evil

Most people know the quote: ‘money is the root of all evil’. But actually this is incorrect. The full quotation is ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’ (Bible: Timothy 1). And maybe that is how we can understand the corruption that causes greed and degrades a society, using celebrities as their poster children. 

If you view money as a necessity to allow the exchange of goods and services, and as your due for a hard day’s work (not as the all-consuming goal for your existence) money will never hurt you.  In essence, you should control your money and not let it control you.

The Philanthropy of Money

Soaring to the other end of the celebrity spectrum is money used for good. I would like to offer up the world-famous, wealthiest philanthropist of our time:  Bill Gates. He was the first person to ever be described as a centibillionaire when his personal fortune topped $101 billion. 

He still sits on Microsoft’s board as executive chairperson, but spends most of his time working on the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’. This is the world’s largest transparently operated charitable foundation and it prompted him to make The Giving Pledge to donate over half his wealth to charity. This was considered as a moral commitment to be generous and help ease the multiple problems bubbling up all over the world.

Combining Ethics and Money

The debate of ethics and money can be brought down to two simple questions. If you answer yes to either one of them, then your relationship with money is unethical:

• Is your money used to hurt other people?
• Is your love of money controlling you?

Defining ourselves by external means detracts from our humanity, and measuring yourself by money is one of the best ways to do that and lose everything.