金钱的隐性成本

Aug 14, 2008 Peter Singer

普林斯顿 - 当人们说“金钱是一切罪恶的根源”的时候，他们通常不是指金钱本身是罪恶的根源。人们是热爱金钱的,即使最早说这句话的Saint Paul也不例外。不管我们对金钱是否贪婪，金钱本身是否可能是个问题呢？

卡尔·马克思是这么认为的。马克思在他年轻时代所写的《1844年经济学哲学手稿》这一到二十世纪中叶才得以出版并被世人知晓的书中，把金钱描述为“放之四海而皆准的分离制造者”，因为金钱把人的特性改变为它物。马克思写道，一个人或许长得很丑，但如果他有钱，那就可以买到“最美的女子”。也就是说，如果没有钱，要做到这点，他就需要一些更正面的个人的素质。马克思认为，金钱使我们脱离人类真实的本性，使我们疏远他人。

马克思曾预言，劳动人民的革命可以带来一个新时代，在这样的时代中每个人的生活将变得更美好。而当大家认识到这一预言显而易见的错误之后，他的威望便跌落了。因此，如果他只是在说金钱的分离作用，我们或许可以把这一说法当作其错误理论的一个部分将之随意抛弃。但是《科学》杂志在2006年刊登的Kathleen Vohs、Nicole Mead和Miranda Goode三人的研究报告认为，至少在这一点上，马克思说的不无道理。

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Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
174 Commentaries

Peter Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, Laureate Professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and founder of the non-profit organization The Life You Can Save. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), Rethinking Life and Death, The Point of View of the Universe, co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Most Good You Can Do, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, One World Now, Ethics in the Real World, and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction, also with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. In 2013, he was named the world's third "most influential contemporary thinker" by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

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Paul Peters May 21, 2013

It's a two-sides sword. The native-american practise of the yearly give-away is a great modus to combine "noblesse oblige" with a natural instinct and systemic asymmetries.
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金钱的隐性成本

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