Potentialities of Money

The main goal of this chapter is to empirically illustrate the core phenomenon of this book: the nature of the tension between money and medicine. The meanings of medicine are examined, with “helping others” and a “(scientific) interest” being the most frequently mentioned. Furthermore, general meanings of money—particularly independence, security, and freedom—are also of interest. Additionally, the concepts of “re-earmarking” and “de-earmarking,” “the burden of excess money,” and the Easterlin Paradox are empirically reflected on and discussed. The analysis illustrates how money may corrupt medical values. The question is raised as to whether money rises to the top of one’s hierarchy of values through conscious or unconscious processes. It also shows the extent to which money exerts an influence as an attractive force on people, and how this may lead to a self-reinforcing spiral of greed. Finally, the chapter associates the tendency to address the tension between the money-means attitude and the money-purpose attitude—by adopting the latter—with a loss of meaning. This loss of meaning ultimately represents a loss of the meaning of medicine.