Never say never, but it will take a serious change in our culture to bring about an end to the use of money all together.  Let me explain how our society works.

Despite what you may have convinced yourself of, your primary quest in life is the accumulation of money.  Nothing else matters until you’ve accumulated some matter of wealth.  The few of us that devote their lives to something other than the accumulation of money do not have to worry about money.  Bill Gates is worth so much money he doesn’t have to worry about it, so he can focus on other things.  Martin Luther King Jr was possibly not concerned with money because everywhere he went someone else would take care of that.  Nothing wrong with that, or Bill Gates, its just that for whatever reason they didn’t need to think about money.  The rest of us do.

So that makes us greedy.  We work for money, invest money for more money, and spend countless hours learning how we can make the money work harder (you are reading a personal finance blog remember?).  There is not person you can list that does not fit into this category by some degree.  Some need less money, but we all need money to get by.  We all strive to either have more money than we can spend, or to not have to think about it because some else takes care of it for us.

That current situation kind of sucks doesn’t it?  I just branded you a greedy, money grubbing worm.  Are you going to take that laying down?  Of course you are, you’re a worm (no spine).  The truth is that situation ain’t so bad.  Greed drive innovation.  All the technologies and advancements through the years have been driven by the quest for money.  Would I devote my life to studying cures for cancer for free?  No, I’m not going to cure cancer and work nights at the Taco Bell drive through.  I need to devote all my energy to cancer, so someone pays me to do just that.

Where we stand right now isn’t a bad place, it  hasn’t let us down (much) in thousands of years, but we didn’t start there either.  Before money came along our primal selves were all about survival.  Kill or be killed my ancestors used grunt about in their caves.  Of course then they would promptly kill eachother.  That’s probably why it took us so long to get where we are.  Anyway, as civilization developed so did this economic model of accumulating money.  I’m no sociologist or anthropologist (I’m a weakonomist) but I think its safe to say at some point we’ll grow out of this money thing too.  It may not be for another billion years, but if the human race lasts that long I think we’ll get there.

That brings me full circle to Star Trek.  Star Trek wasn’t a success in its many forms because of the technology, it was the civilization they lived in.  The United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member, does not care about money.  They threw away their greed and corruption, and most everyone started working together to improve the lives of everyone.  Hunger is gone, money is gone, sickness from basic diseases gone as well.  Many casual Star Trek fans loved the series so much because its nice to envision a time where race doesn’t matter, politicians aren’t paid off, and no one ever has to worry about money.  Does the series address all the practical details that made this possible?  Of course not.  Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator was a write, not a philosopher.  If he had discovered all the secrets to mold our society, we’d be well on our way there.

There will come a time when money isn’t our motivation.  No it won’t be in our lifetime, but everytime you do something without motivation for money, you take us one step closer.

Related posts:

1. 6 Lessons Star Wars Can Teach You About Money
2. Why Do We Have Money? Part I
3. Why Do We Have Money? Part II
4. The Future of Money
5. Weakon 119: Lack of Financial Education

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