I've never read so many silly-minded "pretend" intellectuals in my life as on this board, I must add.

You guys are really the quintessential examples of what the KGB called "useful idiots."

Shannon, you should really read the work to understand that money is only a medium by which to gauge exchanges. It is an acknowledgment of scarcity, which Marx rejects. It is an acknowledgment of reality, which postmodernists reject. The disequilibrium in the economy is the direct result of government policies discordant with reality. This is no place for economic exegesis, but I point you in the direction of the Austrian School or Chicago School of economics for alternative theories of what is wrong with the economy. Don't let the "greedy capitalist pig" chimera emotionally manipulate you into not seeing what is plain to see from the vantage point of dispassionate analysis.

She does say the "love of money" later on in the passage, James.

Don't look down your nose on Ayn Rand unless you've read her works and are familiar with her ideas. It is fine to reject her ideas, but make sure you are doing it on the basis of something besides the idea that "intellectuals don't think that way." This kind of effete intellectual peer pressure is a real scourge of free thought and discussion in this country.

P.S. Collectivism is lunacy. Take care.