On BBC Radio’s Moral Maze this week, we discussed the morality of money. With so much gloom about the cost of living, we seem to be preoccupied with money — inflation, interest rates, pay demands and profits. The overriding objective of measuring economic growth is to help as many people as possible to have more money. But have we become too pre-occupied with filthy lucre?
Having money brings us comfort and luxury. Money also drives progress. But while it’s made us materially ever richer as a society, has it made us poorer as individuals? Has it made us into transactional rather than relational beings, corrupting as much as it enables and making it impossible for us to judge when we have enough of it? If the best things in life are free, can we imagine a world without money — and would it make us happier and better people?
My co-panellists were Giles Fraser, Ella Whelan and Ash Sarkar. Our witnesses were Charlie Mullins, who became “Britain’s richest plumber” before selling his business for more than £100 million; Darren McGarvey, writer, rapper and activist; Tomáš Sedláček, Czech economist, university lecturer and author of Economics of Good and Evil; and Anitra Nelson, Australian political scientist and author of Beyond Money: A Post-Capitalist Strategy.
If you have BBC Sounds, you can listen to the programme here.
Recent posts
My most recent exclusive post for my premium subscribers asks why Britain’s smart, technocratic prime minister is promoting Net Zero lunacy. This is how the piece begins:
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