Talib:They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tellYouknowhatImean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar billsOr is it the mindstate that's ill?It's not the money, but the concept of placing value in something in order to exchange it for something else with another person. Money solves that problem because you can exchange it for other goods instead of trying to figure out just exactly how many chickens a person will take for a car, or how many gallons ofgoat's milk you need for rent. Plus, it doesn't spoil and can be held onto longer than the aforementioned alternatives. Can you imagine someone's safe deposit box being filled with eggs, sheepskins, jars of honey, etc.It's a system that's observed and practiced by everyone, which makes it possible for higher level business to be done. Nobody's gonna worry about computers and internet when you gotta milk the goats just to get dinner from up the block. If you're off in the woods at a self-sufficient farm that you can maintain solo without any help from the outside world, then ok you don't need money. But you also won't have any community, no proximity with other people, always caught up in the management of the farm just so you can live. But with money, you can exchange it with others dedicated to supplying food for it,and then you can go off and do whatever other trade you want, like teach. Cities and population density wouldn't be able to function without a concept of money involved, because they're not self-sufficient enough to supply their own food and other goods, they have to import it from somewhere else.The reason why money has so much power is primarily because it's needed to get a lot of fundamentals and for everyday life to function. Naturally as your basic needs are covered, youwant to elevate your desires to the finer things, which is where greed and the power it has over people comes in. The reason why mo money= mo problems is because even if you're richand want to kick a little bread over to someone to help out, they're gonna keep elevating what they want out of you since they start looking at you as a free checking account and stopfocusing on doing them. And the more loot you have, the bigger the population you have an influence over is. So you're a millionaire and everyone on the block knows it, the hands withpalms facing up come out in spades multiplied by a larger factor than if you just had 100k. People are just looking to get theirs so they don't care about the whole big picture and thateveryone else is trying to get theirs too.I see it all the time with my family and people back in Vietnam. They just look at Americans like we piss out gold because we use dollars. So they're always trying to get their cut ofthe action. Calling us up for a hundred or so 'just because it's only a couple hundred', it adds up. They don't consider that we also have to spend dollars too, it's not like we pay for stuffin their worthless currency. It makes for a lot of bad vibes whenever I go back, so I really don't like to. I love the place, but the target on my wallet gives me a real headache.Experiences like that make me value true friends that don't give a (#*&@$ about how much bread everyone else got that much more, because it becomes a real drag if you don't realizethat you're just trying to live too.Cliff notes for those who don't like reading:-)#@*$# is gonna cost something no matter what you pay-money is most convenient thing of value-first you get the money, then you get the food, then you want the power-mo money=mo influence=mo problems because everyone wants theirs-true friends are few and far betweenEDIT: Yes, you can exchange services, but what's a mechanic gonna do for a guy who doesn't need work on their car? What's a doctor gonna do with a healthy person? Just how manycheck-ups in a day does your waiter need?