Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Power and Money

The institution of money both empowers and oppresses the individual. I argue this through (1) a psychological approach, (2) a philosophical approach, and (3) an ideological approach. I turn to the work of the sociologist Georg Simmel for a psychological and philosophical understanding of the effects of money on the individual, particularly through his analysis of how value is derived from the subject-object relationship and how the calculus of sacrifice and gain is a function of the distance between the subject and the object of desire. I frame my argument with a discussion of how power operates within different ideological traditions. More specifically, I look at how money is described as empowering the individual within the ideological tradition of classical liberalism. I contrast that discussion of empowerment by looking at Marx’s concern about how money constrains or diminishes the individual, particularly in terms of his alienation thesis. This paper does not discount this story of alienation, but it asserts that Marx’s call for the abolition of private property would do more to oppress the individual rather than empower them. In conclusion, this paper contends that the empowering effects of money outweighs its constraining effects.