Financial Autonomy

To focus on money for the alleged mere sake of money is indeed unavoidably irrational and shallow, but to be concerned with money for the sake of survival, personal security, and generosity is not as long as one does not betray reason or morality.  Yes, someone might want money so that they can give it away to those in genuine need, or they can desire to have wealth without believing anything false or fallacious about the subject and without being infected by greed.  It is in fact of great significance if a person has enough money to ensure the autonomy to not unnecessarily rely on other people, especially the likes of abusive or egoistic employers or romantic partners.  This is something that can quite literally alter the course of a person's life.

With a greater reserve of money or useful/valuable possessions, a person is less reliant on an employer of any kind, but he or she is particularly less susceptible to the desperation that selfish employers themselves rely on to keep employees trapped.  A racist, lying employer, for instance, could not take advantage of a poor labor market if their workers have been allowed by a pro-employee corporate system (by being paid livable compensation or better), throughout their careers, to save up the money they need to have the freedom to be more selective about jobs.  Paying people as little as they can get away with, making empty promises, and feigning a lack of intentionality behind their exploitative practices is much harder to engage in when workers will just leave or opt to toy with you from their position of independent financial security!

Just as the autonomy afforded by financial stability gives people more bargaining power or options in standing up to or leaving asinine employers, it also gives people more to stand on if exiting an abusive or unfruitful romantic relationship.  A man or woman who is financially stable does not need to bother weighing the burdens of standing on their own as far as money is concerned against the alternative of remaining in a draining, oppressive relationship.  The primary qualities of a positive romantic partnership are rooted in rationality and moral uprightness in both parties, and afterward is personal affection, and then subjective fulfillment/happiness.  Dating and especially legally marrying for the sake of money, in the sense of desperation rather than greed, is very unsafe; however, a life-giving relationship can fortify one's financial status.

Destitution and even waning financial security alone do not make someone choose to remain in awful or dangerous situations such as these.  However, they are factors that are not of minor relevance, as it is possible for even a thoroughly rationalistic person to choose to stay with an irrational employer or partner in part because of concern for their own ability to get by.  While money does not resolve the deepest human problems or remove our metaphysical and epistemological limitations from us, it can bring a broad, foundational kind of peace that spills over into various other categories of life.  This is one reason why egoistic employers might fight changes to workplace systems that make it easier for them to do as they please with no concern for reason or whatever moral obligations might exist: they would lose a vital source of their power over employees.