# Do you hate money? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 2, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001 "2004-08-02T18:03:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nonpolar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@nonpolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonpolar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/1 "2004-08-02T18:03:26Z")
Do you hate money? ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/2 "2004-08-02T18:12:25Z")
No, but I hate inane questions posted in the wrong forum. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/3 "2004-08-02T20:04:49Z")
> [@robby](#): > > No, but I hate inane questions posted in the wrong forum. :rolleyes: Wrong forum maybe, probably more suited to IMHO, and also very open ended but… …I HATE money. Hate it. Hate the bills, hate the way the whole system works. So yeah, I hate money. I’d prefer to live in a society where you simply can take what you want and there is enough for everyone, let me know if you find where they are all hiding. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/4 "2004-08-02T20:30:07Z")
Only when I don’t have much of it. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/5 "2004-08-02T21:04:49Z")
> [@nonpolar](#): > > Do you hate money? Definitely. I’d much prefer to go back to bartering for goods and services. :rolleyes: “Waiter! Check, please.” “Here’s you are, sir. That’ll be three sheep, half a cow, a crate of oranges, and a bale of hay.” “Here’s two sheep, a barrel of whiskey, and a whole cow. Keep the change.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/6 "2004-08-02T21:15:39Z")
General Questons is for questions with factual answers. IMHO is for opinions and polls. Off to IMHO. [d]DrMatrix\*\* - GQ Moderator ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/7 "2004-08-02T21:16:15Z")
> [@Joe Random](#): > > “Here’s two sheep, a barrel of whiskey, and a whole cow. Keep the change.” Don’t you want to haggle for it?.. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/8 "2004-08-02T21:24:41Z")
Note: For those of you who DO hate money please feel free to send it to me. I am willing to take it off your hands so you never have to worry about it again. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/9 "2004-08-02T21:25:24Z")
> [@stockton](#): > > Don’t you want to haggle for it?.. Nah. I’m a generous tipper. And anyway, I’m in a hurry. I have to drive my 18-wheeler back home to pick up a fresh supply of livestock, and after that I’m off to the mall to do some early holiday shopping. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/10 "2004-08-02T23:25:38Z")
Hating money is like hating the alphabet, or Hindu-Arabic numerals. It’s just a symbol for value. you may hate the way values are divided or distributed in a given system, any system is going to have some sort of means of exchange, or risk getting into the cumbersome transactions **Joe Random** lampooned. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/11 "2004-08-02T23:49:00Z")
I only hate money that doesn’t belong to me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/12 "2004-08-02T23:52:53Z")
I hate the fact that the acquisition of just about anything, including just having a roof over your head, involves the exchange of what is basically a metaphysical construct. Money isn’t even a symbol of value anymore. It’s the representation of labor. My share of the rent on this apartment, at the seven dollars an hour I get for hard-found temp work, is the equivalent of about forty-three hours of physical labor. That doesn’t include utilities (which are outrageous in the summer as the company that owns this complex can’t see their way clear to blow some freaking insulation into the walls) food, any potential medical care me or my mom may need… Of course, once I get my license as a massage therapist, then my share of the rent will be six hours of labor, doing something I actually freaking enjoy. Personally, I would love to go back to the barter system. Waiter: Miss, that will be one fifteen minute chair massage. Me: OK, and since the service was so good, let me work on that tray-carrying hand for an extra five… ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/13 "2004-08-03T04:14:01Z")
No, money represents the value that others place on your contribution. If your contribution is stacking boxes, then it’s not very valuable. We train the mentally disabled to stack boxes. If your contribution took training, requires skill, personality, punctuality, and makes people feel good and more productive, you will be rewarded more for it. This isn’t a difficult concept. It’s not some wonky construct made up by the Trilateral Commission or something. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/14 "2004-08-03T04:27:46Z")
I like it and I am not ashamed at all. I worked very, very hard to get to this point in my life where I can have whatever I want whenever I want it. This wouldn’t be true if I had expensive tastes but I don’t. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/15 "2004-08-03T04:43:28Z")
What **Cardinal** said. Money doesn’t just represent labor, it represents a bunch of things including but not limited to labor. We can call this value. Value can be say, an hour of unskilled labor, an ounce of grapes, a poem, or a backrub Values can be determined by the state (in a controlled economy) or by the Market (In a free market economy). The free market economy seems to work better but most free market societies have some gov’t controls, though strict wage and price controls have been, well, bad. But whatever the system is-Capitalist or Socialist–some sort of money will be needed to facilitate exchanges. Only the most primitive societies can function with a barter system. Money has arisen independantly all over the world, in drastically different economies. To take **The asbestos mango’s** example, suppose the waiter doesn’t want a backrub. Suppose s/he want’s a book, or concert tickets, or to repair their car. A barter system in a complicated industrial society would be beyond the ability of words like “cumbersome” or “unworkable” to describe. So money is just a shorthand for value. To get back to the OP, why should one hate it? For that matter, why should one love it? As I said, it’s like hating letters or numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/16 "2004-08-03T05:04:30Z")
I don’t hate it or love it; I just recognize it as the premier medium of exchange. > [@](#): > > It’s the representation of labor. That is a very incomplete expression. It’s hardly only labor that is expressed in monetary exchange. As touched on by **Cardinal** and **Larry Borgia** , value is the primary expression of money, and the value of labor is but a small part of the whole. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/17 "2004-08-03T06:10:40Z")
> [@robby](#): > > No, but I hate inane questions posted in the wrong forum. :rolleyes: Is this sort of nastiness toward an obvious newcomer REAlLLY necessary, or productive? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/18 "2004-08-03T06:16:07Z")
I think money is life, as measured by time. I think that in a rational society, the unit of currency would be defined as, say, one hour of babysitting a moderately well-behaved four-year-old. All other values will be negotiated from there, but the money can always be traded out for it’s defined babysitting worth. Kind of like the gold standard. I should have gone to bed an hour and a half ago. Can you tell? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/19 "2004-08-03T06:25:31Z")
😃 [sup] **If you hate it; just send it to me and I’ll get rid of it.** [/sup] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001/20 "2004-08-03T06:27:49Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > No, money represents the value that others place on your contribution. If your contribution is stacking boxes, then it’s not very valuable. . Why is it not very valuable? Those boxes are heavy, and months or years of stacking them can cause damage to a person’s body (keeps masage therapists in business). Is not a person who does physical labor worthy of being paid at a rate that enables him/her to seek the services of people like me to help undo some of the damage caused by performing that labor? Or should they just have to eke out a meager existance until the body breaks down altogether? Plus the time the box stacker spends stacking boxes is time that the “more valuable” trained types don’t have to spend stacking boxes, thus enabling them to be more productive. I really despise the notion that people who do physical labor instead of “working with their brains” aren’t making much of a contribution. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hate-money/258001.md?page=2)