Money Does Not Control Everyone

There are those who see money simply as a means to an end, regardless of what that end is in the minds of different people, and there are those who see money as a controlling, overpowering force that no one can truly resist.  The latter type of person holds that there is no act that each individual could not be convinced to carry out as long as the right amount of money is involved, even if that amount is extraordinarily high.  While money has an inescapable importance in modern life, it is not as if all people elevate financial gain--even hypothetical gain--over moral concerns.

It is certainly possible that some who think they have an unshakeable moral resolve might be persuaded to commit some atrocity if they were only given the right amount of money, but what is true of one person's moral standing is not always true of another person's.  It should be apparent to all people that different individuals can have very different moral struggle areas, but it is far easier to make assumptions than it is to think carefully enough to refute them.  Other than mere stupidity, though, there is one other major reason why some people might think that money would drive anyone to do great evil.

When someone asserts that "everyone has their price," they are quite likely just assuming that everyone else has the same weakness to offers of money that they do.  They recognize that they could be bribed into committing practically any act, and they perhaps extrapolate from themselves to others not only out of intellectual ineptitude, but also in order to make themselves feel better.  A person who knows they lack self-control or firmness may simply opt to accuse others of having the same deficiencies so that they do not feel or look as guilty.  Whatever their motive, their stance is easily deconstructed by reason.

Money can indeed be a powerful motivator, but it does not have the power to reduce everyone to heinous acts.  It is therefore asinine to treat one person's potential susceptibility to monetary persuasion as if that fault appears in every other person.  As with all moral issues a given individual may struggle with, it is not the case that everyone else necessarily has the same weaknesses as oneself, and extrapolation is universally invalid for this reason.  Those who are willing to rationally contemplate the matter will easily see that money does not control everyone.