Atlas Shrugged, written by Ayn Rand is a very profound book on many levels, but one of those is its explanation of the nature and meaning of money, and how it is created.  Read on to find out more about how Ayn Rand saw money.

In one famous speech, the character Francisco D’Anconia, a wealthy and successful business person explains:

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

Money is the only civilised way that we can trade with each other.  Although wealth and money are said to be evil, they are a way of exchanging our best with the best of others.  Money is the one alternative to fighting each other for what we need.  Ayn Rand saw money as the fruit of applied intelligence and effort.

Ayn Rand is often wrongly thought to be only focused on money, but that is completely untrue.  She was more interested in the moral principle behind money – that it represents the benefits of rationality.  Where money was obtained either through “mooching” – the lazy and incompetent parasitically taking it as if they in some way deserved it through neediness – or looting (taking it by force), she saw that as being of no merit at all:

“Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

“Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

The hero of the book, John Galt, works as a lowly railroad assistant and lives in a slum apartment yet he is presented as one of the great producers and minds with the capacity to produce enormous wealth.  James Taggart is a wealthy railroad president (with much of his wealth coming from government subsidies) yet is morally bankrupt and incompetent and a contemptible character.

At the end of the book, the government blatantly seizes money from the few remaining producers to line the pockets of the corrupt and well-connected.  Cash becomes essentially worthless.  Ayn Rand makes it clear that money first has to be created by the productive before it can be seized.  The entire premise of the book is that the work of the mind is what creates wealth, and money is of little value without the minds that made it.

If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, I would recommend it (get past the first fifty pages, and it starts to become compelling reading).  Thanks to For Love of Money, on Twitter, for suggesting this post.

Tags: book review, producer, wealth

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Wealth and work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.