"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco
d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a
tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and
men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle
that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give
value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your
product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force.
Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you
consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your
effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for
the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the
looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns
in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the
bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which
should have been gold, are a token of honor--your claim upon the energy
of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that
somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on
that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you
consider evil?
"Have you ever looked for the root of
production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself
that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to
grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to
discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of
nothing but physical motions--and you'll learn that man's mind is the
root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever
existed on earth.
"But you say that money is made by the strong at
the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the
strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to
think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense
of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the
expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By
the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made--before
it can be looted or mooched--made by the effort of every honest man,
each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that
he can't consume more than he has produced.'
