Money.

Why is everyone so hung up on money? More to the point, why am I so against it? I find myself insulted every time someone tries to convince me to do something based on the lure of increased pay or easy money, and I don't understand exactly why.

I'm not a Socialist. I'm not a Communist. These forms of government and so-called equalization of value have proven to be terribly dangerous to personal freedom. Still, I feel that Capitalism leaves a lot to be desired. Every time you pay for some object or service, you are accepting someone else's value system. Supply and demand is the principle which greases the gears of capitalism. Take an item like a television, for instance. You go into the electronics store, and you look at the TVs that are available for purchase. $75 for a 15" generic brand TV, or $25,000 for a state of the art 95" plasma HDTV. Who assigns these prices? Who determines the value of an object? Our society does. Do you really value your television viewing time to the tune of $25,000? Does anyone? Probably not.

Why don't we assign value based on our own personal values, rather than accepting the value that has been placed on an object by people whose values I don't necessarily share? Is there even a way to do that? I don't know. Do I have to forgo television entirely, just to remain true to my own values? That's exactly what I intend to do until I find a better way to live. Television, and everything else that I don't place a very high value on.

I find the very concept of trading life, trading time, for things whose values have been set by my society, to be degrading. I just don't know how to stop it.