Why the Love of Money Fails Us and How Resourceism Offers a Better Way
“When we stop chasing dollars and start stewarding the resources that sustain us, prosperity becomes a shared experience instead of a private hoard.”
From the earliest days of organized societies, humans have wrestled with the role of money. It was invented as a tool to simplify trade, yet across centuries it has swollen into something much larger, often eclipsing the very things it was meant to represent. Entire civilizations have risen and fallen over the quest for wealth. The biblical phrase “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” still resonates because it captures a truth that has proven durable: greed corrodes communities and places profit above people.
But money itself is not the real culprit. The danger lies in allowing money to become the measure of all things. When we chase money rather than well-being, we degrade the soil beneath us, the water we drink, and the bonds that tie us together. At a time of climate upheaval, staggering inequality, and technological potential, we face a choice. Do we cling to the love of money, or do we embrace new models that put life, fairness, and sustainability at the center? One of the boldest visions is Resourceism, an economy built not on the abstractions of currency but on the stewardship of shared resources.
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The Love of Money: A Wound Across Ages
The concern about money’s corrupting influence is ancient. The Hebrew prophets denounced usury, Plato questioned whether wealth made people just, and Jesus declared that one cannot serve both God and money. Medieval theologians warned that unchecked greed was one of the seven deadly sins. Modern critics from Karl Marx to Martin Luther King Jr. noted how economic obsession distorts human priorities.
The reason these critiques echo across cultures is that the love of money has real consequences. Wars have been fought not only over ideology but also over gold, oil, and land speculation. Colonialism marched under banners of civilizing missions but was fueled by the extraction of wealth. Today, global politics still revolves around pipelines, minerals, and corporate profits. Even humanitarian disasters are too often measured in terms of their impact on markets rather than their toll on human lives.
To love money is to mistake a symbol for reality. Money is a token, a stand-in for value, yet when the token becomes the goal, reality suffers. This confusion is not a moral failing of individuals alone but a systemic flaw in how we organize societies.
Money as a Poor Compass
In its healthiest form, money is an accounting tool. But under capitalism, money became the compass of decision-making. If it is profitable, it must be pursued, even if it destroys rainforests or exploits children. If it is unprofitable, it is dismissed, even if it would heal or uplift millions. This distortion explains why medical breakthroughs sit on shelves because they are not profitable enough, while trivial consumer gadgets receive enormous investment.
Money also incentivizes short-term thinking. Quarterly profits matter more than long-term sustainability. Companies slash forests or overfish oceans because stockholders demand immediate returns. Entire ecosystems collapse under the weight of financial expediency. As the economist Kate Raworth argues in her “Doughnut Economics” framework, growth for growth’s sake pushes societies outside ecological boundaries and leaves human needs unmet.
Meanwhile, billions of people remain excluded because access to life’s essentials depends on having money. A family may live next to an abundance of food yet starve because they cannot afford it. Housing may sit empty while the homeless freeze in the streets because the empty units are financial assets rather than shelter. Money, far from being neutral, becomes a gatekeeper to survival.
Introducing Resourceism
Resourceism seeks to overturn this logic. As defined by Resourceism.com, it is the belief that the Earth’s resources are the common inheritance of all humanity. The idea is radical yet simple: use technology and empathy to meet human needs directly without money, trade, or profit. Instead of asking how much something costs, Resourceism asks whether it is available, sustainable, and beneficial.
Imagine an economy organized not by currency but by access to clean water, renewable energy, fertile soil, medical knowledge, and shelter. These are the true wealth of nations. Resourceism insists that if these essentials exist, they should be distributed equitably. Decisions would be guided by science, data, and compassion, not by market fluctuations.
In this way, Resourceism goes beyond both capitalism and socialism. Capitalism sanctifies private profit, socialism often redistributes money or ownership, but both remain tied to monetary systems. Resourceism proposes a deeper shift: removing money as the measure altogether and centering resources as the foundation of a fair and sustainable society.
How Resourceism Answers the Evils of Money
Equity and Access: Under a Resourceist system, no child would go hungry while food rots in warehouses. Access would be guaranteed based on need rather than wealth.
Environmental Stewardship: When value is defined by the health of ecosystems, exploitation becomes irrational. A forest is more valuable alive, regulating climate and hosting biodiversity, than dead as raw timber.
Human Dignity: Work would no longer be a desperate scramble for wages but a meaningful contribution to collective well-being. People could choose vocations aligned with passion and purpose, not survival alone.
Innovation Without Greed: The myth that profit is the only driver of innovation collapses under scrutiny. The moon landing, the Internet, and vaccines were born from collective missions, not private greed. Resourceism unlocks innovation by aligning it with human and planetary needs.
Lessons From the Commons
Skeptics may wonder whether shared resources can be managed without chaos. The work of Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom offers a compelling answer. She studied communities worldwide that managed fisheries, forests, and irrigation systems collectively and sustainably. Her research proved that when people cooperate under fair rules, commons do not collapse. They thrive. Resourceism builds on these insights, scaling them with technology to coordinate resources globally while respecting local needs.
Similarly, models like community land trusts, such as the Champlain Housing Trust in Vermont, demonstrate how housing can be managed outside speculative markets. These experiments reveal that alternatives to money-driven systems already exist in practice.
Pathways to Implementation
A transition away from money will not happen overnight. But change often begins in pockets of innovation that expand outward.
Pilot communities can experiment with resource-sharing, renewable energy grids, and cooperative production.
Open-source technology enables free access to knowledge, from 3D printing designs to medical research.
Participatory governance allows communities to decide priorities collectively, ensuring that distribution reflects local needs.
Education reframes wealth as soil fertility, clean water, and social bonds rather than dollar signs.
Each step builds resilience and chips away at the myth that money is indispensable.
Addressing Objections
Scarcity: Critics argue that scarcity requires money to allocate fairly. Yet scarcity is often artificial, maintained by patents, speculation, or waste. With transparent data, communities can prioritize needs more ethically than markets do.
Incentives: What about innovation? History shows that curiosity, solidarity, and mission drive discovery. Scientists who sequenced the human genome were motivated by knowledge and service. Profit was not the core driver.
Transition Challenges: Skeptics worry about instability during change. Yet every social transformation—abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights—was once deemed impossible. Stepwise reform, combined with pilot programs, can ease the transition.
A Vision of Life Under Resourceism
Picture a day in a Resourceist society. Families receive housing as a right, not as a rental contract. Communities generate energy from wind and sun, shared without monthly bills. Health care is universal because medical knowledge is considered a human inheritance. Children are taught to see rivers and forests as treasures to be protected, not commodities to be exploited.
Work is meaningful. People pursue agriculture, engineering, art, or science because they find fulfillment, not because a paycheck forces them. Creativity flourishes because survival is secured. Cities are designed for ecological balance, with clean air, green spaces, and vibrant public life.
In such a world, the old obsession with money fades into irrelevance. The love of money is replaced by love of life itself.
Conclusion
The warning that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” has echoed across cultures for centuries because it identifies a central distortion in human affairs. Money was meant to serve, yet too often it rules. The ecological crises, widening inequalities, and fraying democracies of our era reveal the bankruptcy of this devotion.
Resourceism offers a way forward. By treating the Earth’s bounty as a shared inheritance and using technology and empathy to distribute it, we can build an economy grounded in justice and sustainability. Wealth then becomes clean water, fertile fields, healthy communities, and creative possibility.
For those ready to imagine life beyond the tyranny of the dollar, the invitation is clear: learn more, share the vision, and join the conversation at Resourceism.com. A better future is possible, one where prosperity is not purchased but shared.