It is not an aphorism and it is wrongly quoted. Money is not the root of evil, the love of money is. And it has been proven all over the history of mankind. As a matter of fact, the root of most evil in the world today is the love of money.

That explains the Kennedy's then. Glad we've resolved that mystery.

I don't have a wallet. I keep mine in my underwear where only hookers can steal it. Remember this should we ever meet and you want to borrow some cash from me.

BTW, if power corrupts and knowledge is power doesn't it therefore stand to reason that knowledge corrupts. Just askin'...

I believe the correct quote is:

"The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

I've got about fifteen bucks in my wallet right now.

Money can be used for good or bad things. Money itself is not evil. It becomes evil when it is all the user thinks about and "worships" it (so to speak). I have a modest $9.00 in my wallet right now and seldom carry more than $20.00 at a time...

O.k. that is true, but I want to be BAAAD!

This statement is like saying guns kill people. It just isn't true. Money can be a good thing if kept in perspective. It's a tool. More to the point "Greed is the root of all evil". Right now I have ten bucks in my wallet. I don't usually carry too much cash on me.

NOt enough, unfortunatelly, it's never enough.

$23.50 Why I have two quarters in my wallet is beyond me.

I got 6 bucks, why you need it?

Money itself isn't evil - its the people who want too much of it that it becomes bad. I have 2.55 in my wallet.

Money makes the world go round, too, so my money grubbing is something you'll all have to live with. I got about one fifty, by the way. The rest of my amassed fortune is in the bank. (haha?)

Money isn't evil, it's a far preferable system of exchange to the barter system which preceded it. It's greed that's the problem. Also, I have no wallet, I don't spend that much money.

Let's just say, at the moment, I'm practically ready to be canonized. (I think it's actually the love of $ that you need to worry about though.)

Goneaway is right. Money in and of itself isn't evil, however greed and avarice are very destructive forces in a persons life. No amount of money can bring you happiness, that's a mistake people make time and time again.

We are on a very limited budget. Right now I have about $40.00 it will be gone very soon because I am on my way to the grocery store to buy whatever they have on sale to make those dollars stretch. I must agree that Money is the root of all evil. unfortunately we do need some to live on.

I guess I am evil. I was born in an upper middle-class family. But I work hard for a living. As for how much money is in my pocket, I've got $725 in cash and more in my credit cards. I have more than $400,000 in my bank.

UPDATE: I can understand where both Lance and skizero are coming from on this one. I can respect Lance's story of success based on his hard work, but I can also respect a person that skizero describes, who has no monetary desires. These are the kind of people that move to the Canadian wilderness and live off the land for the rest of their life. But, in both of these situations, the person is working hard for a living. Lance works for money to buy food and shelter, and the woodsman builds his own shelter and hunts his own food. What bother me are two DIFFERENT types of people. Those who have wealth handed to them, but whose parents do not teach them the value of hard work is one. I know a girl whose parents died when she was young. They left her with a small fortune which she would receive when she was 18. She went to stay with her aunt, who, instead of teaching her to be smart with her money and use it to get an education so that she can support herself when it runs out, merely mooched of her niece for three years until she received the full inheritance. She now is inches away from flunking out of college, has never held a job for more than a week, and has, since she was 13, wasted almost all of a half MILLION dollar inheritance. The other kinds of people who bother me are those who are satisfied with living in a state of subsistence supported by my tax dollars. I know the socialistic functions of our government serve a purpose, but I am shocked at the number of people who are just willing to live on welfare. My father always used the old saying: Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and feed him for a lifetime. I wholeheartedly agree. ORIGINAL COMMENT: Actually I believe it says: The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Of course, this could be applied to anything we put before God. Oh yeah, I have seven dollars in my wallet.

Money is not evil. But since you've asked, I got $70 in my wallet and around $7000 in my bank.

Money is far from the root of all evil. Money is the materialization of fecund ideas, the accumulation of human capital-knowledge, and hard work. If you are broke in this country you need to take a hard look at the decisions you have made, the effort you have put in and what you need to do to make improvements. Now yes, in other countries the systemic problems that cause scarcity are another story all together- but in this country you can blame no one else but yourself- you personally beyond extreme anomolies would be the root cause of your own poverty, not money. I have 235 bucks in my money clip. *****Skizero, sorry to burst your bubble buddy but I grew up in family that had very little money at points due to my worthless alcholic father. More importantly after the second of two businesses I owned with a partner went sour I had to declare bankruptcy about 5 years ago. I then took a job making $7 bucks an hour stocking shelves at Sports Authority right on 7th Ave. (Yeah, lucky I had that wealthy family to fall back on!) I am no better a person now than I was then but I make better decisions now because I have learned from my mistakes. I could end up broke tomorrow and it would be no ones fault but my own- it surely wouldn't be money's fault. Scarcity is a reality of life and economics is simply the way in which we deal with scarcity. Free markets are the best and most moral way to deal with scarcity- I'm sorry you just haven't figured that out yet. Maybe I'll lend you my textbook.

i agree. look at the hunger to attain it and look at the people who have an abundance of it. in my wallet: $3. UPDATE: in comment to what Lance said about money, or rather monetary gain If you are broke in this country you need to take a hard look at the decisions you've made, the effort you have put in, and what you need to do to make improvements as if walking around w/$235 makes you more of a person. all a comment like this proves is that the person who made it probably came from a wealthy family and did not actually have to work in this country to make money. even if they had a job it was probably handed to them. the type of person for whom every decision, right or wrong, was based solely on how much cash goes in the wallet. a comment like Lance's is a fallicy. having little money or no money, is not the direct result of doing something wrong in this country but could be the end result of a lot of different factors, one of which living a personal life void of monetary desires. but cash stuffers like Lance don't want to hear it and would rather want you to read his textbook(i mean this literally) examples of a capitalistic mindframe.

Money is an absolute necessity in most cultures so it stands to reason that it would be the root of many conflicts. That being said, I don't think it's the root of all evil. I don't own a wallet but I have $282 in my pocket. Don't usually carry that much money around but I have to do groceries for five people tomorrow as well as fill up the truck with gas. I try to keep at least $20 in my pocket at all times.

I basically agree with the aphorism, but I add the codicile: but this is no country to be penniless in. (My children usually finish the phrase for me) I keep no cash in my wallet, only license, credit cards and various membership cards. My cash is in my left pants pocket, held by the most recent money clip someone gave me (I like the ones that have some sort of blade or other useful tool) and if I am carrying less than $300.00, I feel unprepared to take on the day. It takes me 2-3 weeks to go through that much, but you never know when something is gonna cost you a c-note. This is the greatest country in the world, work hard, put a few bucks away and enjoy it. Life is short.

I'll warn you now, this is what happens when I over-analyze a subject; if you don't think you can handle it, stop reading here. Alright, well, here it is: My husband and I were just having this discussion today (yeah, we have strange discussions); currency, in itself, is just a universal IOU, it's an especially useful means of trading. Before money, people traded their goods in order to get different stuff that they themselves couldn't produce. But things get complicated when person A wants something person B has, but person B won't trade because person A doesn't have anything that person B wants. Person B wants something that person C wants, but person C wants what person A has to offer. Or, when persons A and B are trading things of unequal value, that's another complication. With a set form of currency, it just became a hell of a lot easier. Money is a representation of resources, and thus becomes a resource itself, just like land, food, labor, or whatever else you had to trade. And, like every other living thing, we compete for resources, regardless of what form it's in. Competition for resources is natural; we gotta do what we gotta do to live, right? It becomes evil when we want more than we really need (greed), or we do bad things to obtain those resources. I propose that the root of all evil is not money, but the lack of empathy. People do screwed up things to other people because people don't stop to think is this how I'd want to be treated?, or for some reason they think that other people are inferior to them. That, to me, seems like where evil stems from. Anyway, to answer part two, I have credit/debit card receipts from weeks ago and two wallet-sized pictures of my baby niece where money should be in my wallet. All I have, I think, are two quarters in this little compartment for those just-in-case times where I'd need to use a payphone for whatever reason.

It's the same amount every day - $0. I can't deal with a wallet. Really bothers my butt and back when I'm sitting down, so I've never used one. I keep a card holder in my front pocket and the cash is either loose or held together by a paper clip. I'm a classy guy.