We know that money is not the root of all evil, though some like to lay the blame at the doorstep of an inanimate object and tool. The evil springs from the sin of greed, where people continuously place the value of the dollar and power over all, and do whatever it takes to get and keep it.

This disease has spread even to the well-intentioned. People who are in crisis or have overwhelming financial issues like health or have family obligations or just want to survive find themselves looking more and more to the things that will keep them from drowning or allowing them to live decently.

One of the negative impacts of the need for capital to run a nonprofit, for example, has some deterring from their original mission to meet the missions of grantors instead. Families struggling often have to make choices they would otherwise not consider in order to feed their children. And those children grow up thinking that they need to find lucrative careers or other means to keep everyone afloat, denying their own needs and desires.

All of these decisions are based on economic practices where people who have want to maintain their status. When the issue of increasing the minimum wage arose again, people forgot that this does nothing to help people live a little easier, because prices increased to match the increased wages. People don’t want their profit margins to decrease, even at the expense of others suffering or staying in the same plight.

On the flip side, there are careers and events (stunts) that provide lucrative incomes so the participants steer away from other career choices that may be more beneficial and fulfilling in order to make the cash. These actions take away from society instead of enhancing it – education has less importance, careers that help people are not considered, and people fail to realize that these careers and events are short-lived.

It’s sad that people cannot or do not follow their passions or dreams because of the need to maintain a livelihood. I wish that everyone could make the choices that are fulfilling instead of the ones that only make money, because it makes us disappear.