Money = Good, Not Evil

Chris Brown, writing for LDSFreemen.com, gives an excellent critique of the argument that money, and subsequently capitalism, is evil. The article can be found here and includes much on the government's monopoly power to print baseless money. An excerpt:

Of course, money is a good thing, although it—like most things—can be used for evil purposes. It is simply a medium of exchange, used to serve as a common denominator, which then makes more exchange possible. Money is actually useful and necessary in a complex society, allowing a society to move from barter to more advanced civilization. It helps the entrepreneur allocate resources according to their relative prices, and provides the ability to calculate revenues and expenses, profits and losses. It facilitates specialization and the division of labor. In short, it makes economic calculation possible.

But the love of money is something very different; for the love of anything over God would be breaking the first commandment, of loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, of having “No other gods before [God].” A love of money relates to greed (not self-interest) and pride, both of which are the opposites of Christian benevolence and meekness (not weakness). It is greed and pride and the worship of false gods that is evil. This is why we read in the Old Testament that if we walk after other gods, we will perish.

With a proper understanding of scripture we can more accurately view the danger of allowing anyone to have a monopoly on the money supply—and not that capitalism is evil because money is involved. We can also see how competing currencies would help to minimize the risk of someone having a monopoly of money, of someone with the absurd power to create money out of thin air as a counterfeiter, an illusionist, a deceiver.