The Ethics We Sell
Money is one of the core pillars of a fulfilling life. It is one of the essential tenets of the world we inhabit. We do not mind suffering for decades to earn it—for the comfort it brings, for the status it lends to our name, for the sheer thrill of watching the numbers grow in our bank accounts.
It is for this same money that some descend into crime. They steal, they kill, they forge, and they commit countless minor transgressions that linger in the grey zones of morality. In doing so, we slowly compromise our ethics and in the process contaminate our soul. It is for money that we so willingly sell our spirit, only to later suffer the widening distance between our true self and God.
Desperation makes us lose our sanity and slaughter our morals the way we kill our darlings in writing. We assume that once we have enough money, we can reclaim them, but every time you compromise on ethics, you are not simply setting morality aside—you are declaring that it no longer matters. The stories you repeatedly tell yourself eventually manifest through your actions. And those actions, repeated often enough, calcify into your moral code. When that time comes, how do you return to morality knowing that embracing it would require admitting your life had drifted into immorality?
We live in an age of abundance. Most people can afford food on the table and a roof over their head. Even if they do not own the roof, they can at least secure one. Yet we are no longer content with mere sufficiency—we now demand to thrive. We want to outperform our neighbours, surpass our friends, and outshine everyone who dared to doubt us. This is greed, and it is always born of envy, never of necessity.
When you desire the entire world but lack the means to attain it, you grow desperate. And in that desperation, the first sacrifice made at the altar of money is your moral code—your soul. It is your inner ethical self that resists the pull of greed, which is why the mind, intoxicated by the promise of reward, must first silence and then slaughter that ethical guardian.
Women’s bodies were once the vessels of civilisation. Imagine the gift of giving birth to a human who might one day alter the course of history. Now many feel compelled to sell their bodies, displaying themselves like confections in a bakery window. What else can one call it if not degeneracy sponsored by greed? How do you defend usury—an elaborate deception of mathematics—if not as greed dressed up as sophistication? This is why every scripture in the world warns against envy. Greed cannot survive without it.
Money is a tool; your moral code is your child. No matter how hungry you are, you do not sell your children, nor do you devour them. And before doing anything so grave, wouldn’t you want to ask: for whom am I doing this? For a handful of people? There are innumerable ways to earn money in this world without bartering away your integrity. No degree of greed is worth the loss of a night’s peaceful sleep. Be proud of who you are, do not resent the world, and commit nothing that forces you to resent yourself.
Because when you meet your maker in the end, you will be asked what value you placed on your soul—and whether the price you accepted was worth it.