The Personality of Money
No, money does not have a personality. Any human attributes we perceive money to have are placed there by us. Money is merely a tool developed by people to make life easier. The tool of money helps to facilitate the exchange of goods and services and has helped us to move beyond the barter system of yesteryear. Just imagine if we were still using the barter system today. Each of us would have to create a tradable good or service. We would then have to trade that good or service with people who make or grow those items that we need. This system would be fraught with problems and it would take substantial time and energy to transact with other people on a daily basis. The creation of money has streamlined our lives and increased accessibility to those things we need.
Money is also neither good nor bad. So why does the mere thought of money provoke an internal reaction? That internal reaction is emotion being filtered through our thoughts (hopefully), and then expressed as a feeling. Each reader has a set of values and beliefs, developed over time, that skew the truth when it comes to money. Other tools and concepts are skewed by our own biases as well, like the vehicle we drive or the passage of time. The individual can benefit from addressing the emotions tied to these as well, but our focus here is strictly financial.
Many social constructs have aided in the skewed view that individuals have obtained about money. Throughout its history, money has been used as a dividing agent between the rich and the poor and the haves and the have nots. Money has been used as a method of control and influence over others. From a positive perspective, money has also been used for good, such as funding hospitals and schools. Money can be used to either enhance society or cause havoc and pain, much like any other tool. For comparison, consider the hammer. The hammer can be wielded in a beneficial way, to build a neighborhood youth center, or it can be used to break the windshield of someone who has hurt us. Does that make the hammer good or bad? Neither, of course. We, as tool facilitators, decide how tools like money will be used.
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