Money is beside the point. Don't get me wrong, money is extraordinarily useful for reasons we are all familiar with. It alleviates financial pressure by way of living necessities and improves (in part) quality of life by way of discretionary spending. In the socially and economically competitive environment we find ourselves in, further, there are obvious psychological benefits of having "enough" money and detriments of having "not enough" money. However, I must impress the connotative aspects of the word useful — this is right word. Money is a tool like any other; a means rather than an end.

Any other mindset, no matter how controlled, misses the point. Or at least what I consider to be the point. Accumulation of financial capital for its own sake is a misguided endeavor (both in the sense of total personal and community welfare) and bodes poorly for a market economy. Many are impressed by the signal of wealth, nevermind its source. Excess wealth indicates insufficient investment in the whole — the unrivaled power that comes from the betterment of the many.

Ironically, at the personal level, I believe this includes rather than precludes investment toward self. Money as a tool for mental and physical health, as a tool toward a skill, as a tool for creation and/or discovery, etc. It is at the grander echelons of business and government, by contrast, that assets should be allocated such that individuals are at greater ease to do that for themselves, not mere consumption of material products as downstream signals of wealth.

One is free to do with their money as they please, of course. That is a privilege we all get to enjoy. But money itself cannot solve our problems. We are enriched together when financial incentives beckon us toward altruism; we are likewise impoverished when those same incentives entrench our collective selfishness.