Estrella, Bianca Ysabel M.

INTFILO C43

With the talk titled Philosophy and money, I have learned quite a few
things and have cleared some of my misconceptions regarding what money
really is all about. I have now come to a more stable understanding of what
we think of as the word money. The first point I have learned is that money
does not die. By this, I mean, when a person dies, its wealth remains impact
which is why we have the thing called mana or wealth that is being passed
down to the remaining family members. I learned that if you are born from a
family that is incredibly rich, the tendency is that you will experience the
same luxury and so does the next generation of your family. Imagine if you
are born under the Sy or Ayala clan, I bet you would not have to work so
hard to earn money. According to Ms. Zamora, money whether you have it
or not, can never extend ones life. I believe this is implied in a manner such
that our life is naturally going to meet its end, thus, it is not a solution to
prolong life. Regardless if you are the wealthiest person on earth, or the
poorest person alive, you cannot avoid death. Being the richest man in the
cemetery does not really matter. What you have to do while you are still
alive is enjoy the fruits of your labor. Do what you love, create great
experiences, sell dreams not products, travel the world, and take risks
because remember, you will be dead soon. In short, money does not die
together with the person so you have to make use of it wisely.
The next thing I learned is that money is not evil. I was really interested
with this speech by Ms. Velasco because many people see money as
something bad. I was able to relate myself in this because I myself thought
that money can make people do bad things and that money can be a source
of temptation for people. I have always thought that too much of everything
is bad, same rules apply for money. I used to think that those who are
amazingly rich have been so attached to their money without knowing how
they would spend it. For example, some people acquire large number of
money but with that money, they are able share and provide happiness for
others. How we get the money and how we spend the money are two
different stories thus, money is not evil as long as we have the desire to help
others with our wealth. Money is a symbol and not as a source. If you
complain about the evils of money, you simply miss the richness of money:
Its ability to help others and ability to make opportunities for others.
According to Ms. Velasco, It is not the fault of money why people are
corrupt; it is the weakness of people that they cannot handle money. I
strongly have to agree with this and I realized how true this statement is. If
only our politicians are capable and are strong enough in handling money
well without giving in to temptations of stealing it, imagine how our country
would be like. If only people could be more wise and sensitive to their own
money, there would likely be fewer issues about corruption. I am to believe

that money is indeed not evil because it can provide us with so much
happiness as long as we use it wisely.
The Third thing I learned is that a mistaken identity can have a mistaken
value. If I am somebody because of my money, it is only an illusion because
it is my money that is somebody. People are well known for how much
money they make through the products they sell. For example, Steve Jobs
and Henry Sy, there is no doubt that these two are incredibly popular
because of Apple products and SM malls. If we think of money as something
else, its value might be mistaken.
Another point I learned is that it should not be love or money when it can
be both. According to the bible, you cannot serve both money and God.
Where in love is our master and money is our servant. I learned that I could
actually have both love and money without having to serve money. By
serving money this means that a person is overly attached to money that he
forgets his duty to God. This attachment may lead to idolatry where in a
person thinks highly of money when it should be God receiving all the praise.
According to Ms. Velasco, money is a wonderful servant but a terrible
master. The last thing I learned is that money is one of the means where in
love and happiness can be shared. Money is a way where we can contribute
to the happiness of others just by providing simple necessities for the poor.
We can have both love and money as long as our desire to accumulate
money should be proportioned with the desire to share it with others. We
should not be too greedy or selfish with money because it does not make us
look good. It just implies that we prioritize money for our own selfish needs
that we forget the purpose of sharing it with others. To give up money is
easier than to give up your attachment to the money. Since we all know that
money is a material object, it is not part of who we are. Money does not
define us of who we are as a person so losing it would not be so hard unless
we are too attached to it. We know that a person is attached to money when
it is all he can think of and if he becomes addicted to having so much money
when he already has more than enough and at the same time, keeping it to
himself and not sharing what he has to others. And if a person is too
attached to money, he would not share it to others because he would only
want that money for himself. You can only lose something that you have but
not something that you are because true generosity comes from the heart
and not from the pocket.
I have come into conclusion that money is not completely evil because it
can still be used in a proper way where people would not have to be greedy
and selfish but instead, they can share simple joys through money. As long
as we are smart enough how to handle money, I believe that we are using it
for the right purpose.