The price of money

What is a cynic? He is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.



Oscar Wilde may not have referred to tuition fees, but what if the price of higher education was zero? This seems a preposterous idea, especially to Singaporeans raised on the notion that money and quality are directly correlated, even though the example of political office-holders’ salaries has shown the contrary.

So would you give free tuition if you ran a university? The good people of Germany this week did, or rather, undid. After experimenting with charging tuition fees in 2005, all tertiary institutions have reverted to their original FOC status from this autumnal semester onwards.

We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents. - Gabriele Heinen-Kljajic, Lower Saxony's Minister for Science.

This is a refreshing change from an economic system gone mad with monetizing anything and everything. When we base all human transactions and relations on money, or what we can take away, we turn into cynics. What are the FAQs in your life? How much for an afternoon’s ride on that rented bike? Who should foot the bill on this dinner date? What is the return on this house viz-a-viz mortgage interest? When are my children going to grow up so they can pay for my retirement? Where should I migrate for the lowest cost of living?

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



Paul of Tarsus was most definitely not an economics consultant, but he knew enough about the human condition when he first wrote to Timothy in the first century AD. A man becomes cynical even about God when he can name the price of things in life. I wonder what the Roman soldier did with Jesus’ coat after he won the lottery at the foot of the cross? Probably sold it for twenty pieces of silver.

 

A Chinese acquaintance of mine once remarked that those problems we face in the everyday aren’t really problems if they can be made to disappear with money. So what about the problems that don’t vanish when one throws money at them?

The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. - Pope Francis