What is above money?

[Yuina]

In an ideal world, love. Not just romantic love, but love of any kind. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. Money happens to stand above all in the real world it seems.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

The general well-being of others. Money is the root of a lot of problems in our world and is generally treated as something that stands above all else. I do think that things would improve significantly if the well-being of others was prioritized instead. The fact that we've gotten to the point where colourful pieces of paper and polymer that only symbolize value are valued over everything else is just sad.

While eliminating money wouldn't necessarily do much to keep people from finding other ways to try and keep oppressive hierarchical structures in place, especially those who benefit from it (though even some people who don't benefit from them still seem to advocate for them, which is a whole other conversation to have), I do fantasize a lot about a world without money where the well-being of others and our surroundings is instead prioritized. Sadly, the world that dream of is too idealistic to ever come true, but even then we should still be working to try and strive for something better than whatever this shit is.

 

[Forever Sleep]

In the human world, sure- money is what we use to differentiate power. I suppose because we are the current ruling species, money does make the world go round.

It means less to other species and natural forces. A jellyfish wouldn't be able to do much with a lottery win. A new coronavirus couldn't be bribed. The sun doesn't have a coin meter. Money won't make enough difference surely to a massive meteor heading for the earth. If we manage to make enough species extinct, it will start to impact us. I've read that life can't be sustained without insects for example:

Jonas Salk is often quoted as saying "If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within fifty years all forms of life would flourish."

 

[Meteora]

A jellyfish wouldn't be able to do much with a lottery win.

That's a funny comparison :).

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Perhaps in the future, money could buy time.

Waiting for the future for that to happen means money is still Time's slave. For now. Although even if eventually time becomes some form of currency, that's only for humans. Money will also only last for as long as civilization does yet time will still March on until the heat death of the universe or however it's going to end. Nothing money can do about that either.

 

[Andro_USYD]

Money is an instrumental good to acquire other things. Intrinsic goods (which are good in themselves) include knowledge, pleasure/happiness, freedom, love, health, & a lot of what everyone else has mentioned. I try not to pursue instrumental goods, and just focus on knowledge, after my bachelor's I'm going to do a Master's and stay at my uni for many more years to come (I hope). In Australia you can get a HECs debt so basically do any course you want and you only have to pay it back after you earn above a certain income. + The government gives me an allowance fortnightly. I'm really thankful to be in this country and my heart goes out to people that are unable to go to college because of financial issues. It feels like true freedom here.

 

[LastFlowers]

People kill for money. They slave away for it. They give up their health, abandon their families. What is above money? God? Love? Freedom?

Any other form of currency or privilege (like beauty, intelligence, etc)…which leads to things like status, power and freedom- or more opportunities to achieve any (or all of them).

Acceptance would be another goal, of which 'love' would reasonably follow.

 

[Pluto]

 

[ijustwishtodie]

The cessation of suffering

 

[IBM0000]

If the US and its allies's hegemony is threatened, nothing can save you, not even money. Why the fuck does a fascist piece of shit dictator and his family get to clear the street of my town just so he can pass in front of my house, smiling like the disgusting fascist dictator he is with his fascist family under the protection of a military-like police state appartaus? Because the US and its allies deemed him especially fine to serve their interests.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

What will make other things easier or unnecessary?

What will Skip over and avoid all suffering, pain , problems? Suicide asap

Money can make many other things easier but it can't avoid cancer, dementia old age , accidents, scams, lies pain, problems . Only suicide asap will do that imo
To me suicide asap > money.

Because if I kill myself I won't need money.

Money is important in getting a reliable suicide plan and suicide method ready to go. Without money very difficult to suicide


All of these and more are important but if I kill myself the others become irrelevant . I have to worry about all these and more while I'm alive and ranking them , trying to maximize these. But all that is very difficult and requires a lot of work

Suicide > money > suicide ability and means >health > freedom sleep>knowledge> time . Goals Consistency , work , effectiveness getting nthe right things done, time management also important. Reprogramming your brain also ....

 

[Havnis]

Knife

 

[ARW3N]

What is above money? I think it became obvious to everyone what is above money when they saw the late Queen Elizabeth II's gold crown set with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and 4 rubies lying on top of her coffin. Death is above money.

 

[Hvergelmir]

People kill for money. They slave away for it. They give up their health, abandon their families. What is above money? God? Love? Freedom?

Food and shelter? Love and security? People literally give their money away voluntarily for a lot of things!

Earning money and trading it is just the easiest way to obtain many things. When you have the essentials secured, the value of money drop quickly.
Only desperately poor or misguided people kill for money. The same applies to your other examples, to varying degrees.
People who have what they need rarely give up their health or family, to obtain money.

There's even a high interest in self-siffiency, bypassing the need for money altogether.

 

[DarkRange55]

Time.

Time is the ultimate immutable, inescapable force that comes for us all. Even money is powerless against the passage of time since time just causes money to lose its value.

Money can't stop time no matter how much you have. The only way to manipulate time is to fudge relativity on a personal scale.

I would wager that entropy is on the same branch. Decay comes for literally everything no matter how long it takes.

Time can even destroy happiness and love by eventually leading to boredom.

immutable, inescapable forces that are above money? Time, yes, but entropy is only inescapable in closed systems.

In the grand block-omniverse, time is an illusion (and entropy is a statistical measure of state density).
But you provided the context of money, so I answered from a human-experience perspective.

 

[red24]

Pretty much everything is above money. Money are only important for people who have nothing else to look at. And I can afford to say this because I am dirt poor but I was not always dirt poor so I know the value of money quite well. Only people who are worthless value money above all else. The question however makes me laugh and I didnt know I still could laugh.

 

[DarkRange55]

We can fight entropy, but nobody's won yet!
And all life fights entropy the same way we do (locally, with an energy input).

 

[derpyderpins]

I think an issue is that you need money to access whatever is above: fulfillment, purpose, freedom. You need money to have a shot at those.

 

[DarkRange55]

Health. I know, people more or less trade their health for money during working, sometimes in obvious way, but there is a limit to how much a reasonable man would do it.

 

[JealousOfTheElderly]

People kill for money. They slave away for it. They give up their health, abandon their families. What is above money? God? Love? Freedom?

I'd say power. Look at some of the richest people on the planet who decided they want to play Dr. Evil. They're driven by a lust for power.

 

[incompatibilism]

But do you think money is the only key to freedom or just one of them?

i guess another way is to go off grid and cut all your bills off so you don't need much money but in a system of private property that isn't possible without at least some starting money to buy your "freedom"

 

[Apathy79]

I traded money for time in a massive way. Gave away an extremely high paying job to avoid working 50+ hour work weeks for one that pays 10-50x less but requires hardly any work. I think it was the right decision. Most people do the opposite. So I must value time over money, by a space. I certainly have no interest whatsoever in status, fame, prestige, power, or any of that.

But it's all relative. I still need enough money to survive. So I trade a little time for it. I just think it reaches a point, for me very quickly, where more isn't worth the time. I long ago lost any desire to be rich, especially if it cost me most of my waking hours to achieve. And what I consider a comfortable amount of money to live is apparently way below the "poverty line" in my country, so obviously others view it differently.

Further to that, time is only really valuable if you have the health and freedom to enjoy it. So I expect those 2 would also be above money on my list. But it's all relative. No money is disastrous, although not as disastrous as no time, health, or freedom. A small amount of money is what I have and have become comfortable with. A small amount of time, health, or freedom, would be much more dire. For me:

1. Time
2. Health
3. Freedom

 

[illvoid]

Free will. Money is fake, we should really be upset that we work for it. We should be working for real, tangible things. Crops, livestock, tools, shelter etc. used to be things we had to work for directly, not a commodity we had to "buy" after we've made someone else enough money to earn our share. Free will is all that matters.

 

[Blackoutchange]

People kill for money. They slave away for it. They give up their health, abandon their families. What is above money? God? Love? Freedom?

A social status I think, so probably again - money

 

[SoulWhisperer]

Harder to get when genuine is love maybe. You can have a ton of money but having a ton of soulmates to spend your life with seems trivial. Ideals are also something I could value more on an ideal level (terrible unintended pun). Sure, money can buy many things, but it can't heal a spoiled heart.

 

[Steff1337]

In today's capitalist world? Almost not anything.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Health. You can't cure everything with money. You might be able to afford better treatments but not all illnesses are preventable.

Love. You can't buy genuine love. Not everyone's affections or approval can be bought.

Happiness. Even millionaires get miserable and kill themselves.

Nature: You can't bribe a hurricane or earthquake to leave your house intact. You can't pay a shark not to bite off your leg.

Time: You can't buy more time. You can maybe extend you're life but, you'll continue to age.

Money can make your life more comfortable and, it's an enormous problem if you don't have enough of it.

People are all different though. Some people don't seem to crave for the things money buys. I suspect there are plenty of people living more off grid lives that are far happier than many wealthy people.

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

Traditionally, sex and power/status.

 

[GuessWhosBack]

Capybaras. Nature's perfection.

Exhibit A

 

[enduringwinter]

Power. Money is just a mean to power. That and health.