‘MONEY IS THE BAROMETER OF A SOCIETY’S VIRTUE. ‘ – AYN RAND

How do we measure a society’s atmosphere and virtue? Is it by laws made by rulers, or is it by culture created by people? Ayn Rand, the well-known philosopher who initiated the exploration of objectivism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020), once related, ‘Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.’. This claim seems to be skin-deep and confusing. Nevertheless, when we refer to the complete paragraph in Atlas Shrugged, we will be bowled over by Rand’s observation and interpretation of everything around her:

‘Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion…when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.’ (Rand, 1992)

As it turns out, Rand was using money to refer to transactions between people and further using the character of both parties in a business transaction to reflect the ethos of society in a small way. An ideal trade should be based on mutual trust and understanding. If all business activities in a society are like that, people can be predicted to enjoy their beautiful life without redundant worries and suspicions, and vice versa. In real life, we can find solid evidence based on the corruption statistics of each country. Take Syria, for instance; in 2018, its corruption perception index was 13.00, making it the second country in the ranking (GCB, 2017).

Along with that, its high crime rate of 6.84 puts it at 14th in the world’s crime rate ranking of 2023 (Wisevoter, 2023). Conversely, Denmark, where the political system is the least corrupted (GCB, 2017), only had a global crime index of 3.86 in 2023 (Wisevoter, 2023). Those real-world data illustrate that Rand’s statement is not an unsupported literary creation but rather an objective result of well-thought-out philosophical reasoning.

Theoretically, Karl Marx’s perceptions of capitalism can ruin Rand’s idea. Nevertheless, he referred to ‘money’ in a more direct way. In Marx’s conceptual framework, society is divided into ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’. The former indicates the economy of society, which is also the ‘money’ in Rand’s statement; The latter refers to the media, institutions, media and other cultural and social elements, corresponding to Rand’s ‘virtue’ (Marx et al., 1890). In this sense, if a society wants to advance culturally, it must have a solid economic base, as artistic and mental creation usually occurs when individuals have figured out how to survive physically.

Notwithstanding, Rand’s quote is slightly narrow. Admittedly, business activities are critical in societies. However, the significant roles of those non-economical events cannot be neglected. There are many other virtues in the world based on people’s heartfelt good intentions and ‘instincts’. In their work, Ambika Mishra and Pawan Kumar defined kindness as ‘an essential quality to define a perfect human being’ (Mishra & Kumar, 2020). This proves that human’s goodness and beauty are sometimes more critical than external interests.

As Mother Teresa once said wisely, ‘Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.’ (Teresa, n.d.) Although money can be the indicator of society and moral standards on some occasions, a society’s virtue is not a product of mere interests but people’s love and understanding toward each other.

References

GCB. (2017). Transparency International. In GCB.

Marx, Engels, & Lenin. (1890). Historical Materialism [Paperback]. Progress Publishers.

Mishra, & Kumar. (2020). Kindness: An Essential Quality to Define a Perfect Human Being. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(1), 63–70. http://ijeponline.org/index.php/journal/article/view/83

Rand, A. (1992, January 1). Atlas Shrugged. Dutton Adult. http://books.google.ie/books?id=QqBiAAAAMAAJ&q=Atlas+Shrugged&dq=Atlas+Shrugged&hl=&cd=4&source=gbs_api

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2020, July 13). Ayn Rand . Retrieved February 18, 2024, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayn-rand/

Teresa. (n.d.). Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa. Alibaba Blog. Retrieved February 18, 2024, from https://alibaba.ca/kind-words-can-be-short-and-easy-to-speak-but-their-echoes-are-truly-endless-mother-teresa/

Wisevoter. (2023, October 28). Crime Rate by Country 2023 . Retrieved February 18, 2024, from https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country/