The love of money is the root of all evil...

Today's quote to respond to is "The love of money is the root of all evil."  The quote comes originally from the Bible, but is a big part of the set up for "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, which my AP literature class is reading today. 

When I think about this proverb, my first thought is that it is definitely true.  But, then I realize that before I go saying that a statement that contains an absolute term like "all" in it is true, I better really think carefully about it.  And in the end, I think that the love of money is the root of a lot of evil, but not all of it.  Certainly people who steal, and very often people who kill do so in order to get money.  Other forms of evil are dishonesty and manipulation, and these are often done in order to get money as well.  But the love of other things can cause evil, too.  I think the love of power causes a lot of the evil in the world that affects large numbers of people, like the population of a nation.  Power and money are very closely connected, but they are not exactly the same.  If you have a lot of money, power usually comes with it because other people want some of your money, so they do whatever you want in the hopes of getting it.  If you have a lot of power, you end up with either money or the things you would buy with money anyway because you can take it, or it's given to you freely by people who want to influence how you use your power.  Very few people who have a lot of power manage to stay moral and avoid becoming corrupted.  That is one reason why I have always admired George Washington.  There was a moment where he was offered nearly unlimited power, and he chose to limit his power greatly for the good of The United States.  That decision has made our country the best place in the world to live for a long time.  People may also do evil things because they desire other qualities that they can not obtain with money, like beauty.  But when it comes down to it, even beauty is really only desired because beauty gives power to the beautiful person.  So maybe I would change this statement slightly and say "The love of money and power are the root of all evil in man."  I add "in man" because I think that some evil things do happen that are not caused by man.  I think disease and disasters have an evil component, and they have nothing to do with money or power, because people are not typically involved.