Money is a form of unaccountable power.

It doesn't matter what you did to get the money; if you have a lot of it, you can make things happen.

(There's a small amount of accountability around what you do with it, but enough money makes it possible to hide from that as well.)

...and let's not forget that it's often easier to use money to make bad things happen than to make good things happen.

In fact, you tend to get more of it when you use it for bad things.

Remind me why this is a good system, again?

(originally posted here and here on 2020-06-12)

Steve Foerster wrote:

Because when people have tried out systems without the ability to acquire money, there's still unaccountable power, but also mass poverty, starvation, and death.

Morbius wrote:

And those don't exist in money-based societies?

Wikipedia: Great Famine (Ireland)