Why Money Isn’t The Root Of All Evil

Donovan Vogel
4 min readAug 25, 2017

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

Steve Jobs

We hear people say this all the time, “Money is the root of all evil,” but is it true?

It is true. At least to the people that speak it. It’s true for them because their words become their beliefs. It’s true for them because they believe it.

When we are conditioned to believe something from a young age we tend to find examples to back up those beliefs, and if we are determined to prove our point we will find many examples to back it up.

We should prefer to focus on the good things money does for people. How could money be the root of all evil? Money is paper. It’s a fiat currency.

Some people, very few, but some people may have intentions that might be considered evil, but money in itself is nothing. It is neither good or bad.

What we do with money may be considered good or bad. Some of the richest people in the world are the most giving. Donating huge percentages of their income, salary and stock options to charities, non-profits, churches, businesses, investment opportunities and those who are in need.

Ironically, those that say money is evil most often do not give even a portion of their money away. Moreover, the majority of people who say money is the root of all evil buy lottery tickets and enter every money competition on earth…

So, hypothetically, what if they won? Would they become evil too?

Another one of my favorites is, “The rich got there by stepping on others to get there.” Or, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” because the rich are “greedy shits”, right? Nonetheless, we aren’t going down that rabbit hole.

It couldn’t be that the rich got rich by providing enormous amounts of value to others, could it?

Let’s look at Oprah Winfrey as an example. She’s one of the richest females on the planet. She earned her money because of her deep…

Donovan Vogel

Philadelphia based teaching financial literacy | Prospering all other hours | Writer | Lifter | Reader | Traveler | Freedom & Wellness