MANY of us may think that money is the one thing that matters most in life.
We pursue a business or a career simply to make sure we have a regular income throughout the most productive years of our adult life. For working adults, the most prized personal achievement is financial independence. For some, becoming rich is a life-long pursuit.
Naturally, in the course of our existence, there will be moments when money is everything. We need money to pay for our rental, utilities, loan repayments, household expenses and the odd medical bills.
In good times, we seldom think of our health as a liability, but medical bills are on the rise. And if you are afflicted with a rare condition, then taking care of your health can make or break you.
I was diagnosed with diabetes some years ago. Lately, I have suffered from high blood pressure, and a couple of years ago, I was struck by a stroke.
None of these conditions are fatal, but they weakened my constitution and tied me down to a hospital bed for long periods at a time. But I am not complaining, because I am still alive and well.
My heart aches with pity for many of my friends who became bed-bound for a long time before they died painful deaths. The disease I fear the most, one that I have watched several friends succumb to, is cancer.
Thinking of death and dying, I must conclude that living a healthy lifestyle is one of the most important things for a person to practise, in the hope of avoiding spending huge sums on expensive treatments.
The other heavy financial burden for modern men and women is the ability to afford a tertiary education for their children. I know of many parents who have suffered through long years of deprivation, just to save enough money for their children’s education. Many of us know tireless taxi drivers, for instance, working day and night, just to pay for a son or daughter’s university fees.
A lot of problems plaguing our world are the result of a shortage of money. Some people may kill for money. Others will lie and cheat to make quick gains for money. Money lies at the heart of the most poisonous toxin in the heart of man. The greed for money is a cause of much evil in the world. Some people see wealth as a form of acquiring power.
But when you are philosophical about it, money is just a marked piece of paper, printed by a machine. The value of money is what you can acquire in exchange for it. Money itself has no value, and it is truly not worth the paper on which it is printed.
Money is, however, a measure of national wealth, and often of national pride. The amount of goods and services that can be purchased with money is the real wealth possessed by any nation. That is why the wealth of our country is measured in cash terms: that is, in GDP, the gross domestic product of the entire country. Cultural, historical or social riches, or abundance of natural beauty or environmental health, do not enter the GDP equation. ‘Happiness’ or ‘well-being’ have no chance of being counted.
The study of economics – how to manage our resources – is the most crucial branch of knowledge most governments possess.
By and large, Malaysia is considered to be a middle-income nation. Despite many of our structural weaknesses, the country’s fiscal policy is reasonably healthy, when compared to many other nearly bankrupt nations of the world.
Ever since Adam Smith wrote his seminal book ‘The Wealth of Nations’, the study of economics has come to assume top priority in our acquisition of academic knowledge. The means of creating wealth, and keeping it for the benefit of the nation, is one of the principal objectives in politics.
But in the final analysis, regardless of personal or national pride in wealth, we must all realise that the importance of money is not how to make it or flaunt it, but how to make use of it for the benefit of mankind as a whole.
Money is merely a thing, a tool. Just as, some say, the love of money is the root of all evil, love for other attributes besides money can be the root of great good in our world.
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