Howdy focs: MarshaV respectfully axed: Why is money of low value? It seems to me, it's the individuals (or societies) relationship with money that can move from level to level. As an individual, shouldn't I try to move my relationship with money into the intellectual level. That would mean I pay attention to its affects and make conscious decisions based on my intent? What is money? Isn't it like energy, rather than a pattern? I apologize if my questions are too simplistic.
dmb says: Exactly. We buy what we value and this can never be pinned down or predicted. This is what the socialist and capitalists never really figured out, as Pirsig tells it. The economy is a dynamic creature because people have wildly different and ever-changing ideas about what has value. An ideal free market would be a perfect reflection of what people really value. (I suspect the results would not be pretty.) But as Marsha suggests, there is a moral dimension to money. This is true by many standards, and within the MOQ, where all of reality is a moral order, the earning and spending of money is nothing by a moral decision. Are you gonna buy some candy and porn or spend your money on some juice and a philosophy book? Do you earn a living selling crack to children? Making bombs? Poisoning the world? Or do you earn a living fighting those who do? And we have laws against vice because we very well know that people tend to value low level things a bit too much. Like booze and hookers, for example. Every cent that passes through our hands matters in ways large and small. And the issues get more subtle than my ham-handed examples might imply. There is also the social/intellectual conflict and the rest of the moral codes. I'm reminded of Pirsig's comments about Thorsten Veblen's THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS and also his comments about his frat brothers "selling out" to the chemical companies. And I'm thinking of Lila's desperate attempts to get fed and stay dry without money in Manhattan. (The place is really quite hellish for those without money - and lots of it.) I suppose the best a capitalist saint could hope for is to get very wealthy by making the world better and then give it all away to improve the world even further. Maybe some future Jill Gates will earn a trillion dollars by developing toxic clean-up technology and she'll spend her vast fortune on food, medicine, libraries, museums and such. Thanks, dmb MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_focus/ MF Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from moq_focus follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/mf/subscribe.html
