The moral meaning of money

Money is not the result of material processes. Its roles in the economy assume a social and moral ethos. In turn, the ethos is dependent upon custom and custom as law. Money does not remember its origins in these prior agreements, and often ignores the moral import of choices affecting its quantity and cost. Money, too, is not subordinate to society, or limited by societal boundaries. Rather, by a reversal, the structures of the social and moral order are themselves shaped by money. Money’s dominance, and therefore its freedom, appears complete. At the same time, however, the network of financial exchange and currency evaluation require formal agreements which assume the global unity and solidarity of a moral order.