Defending Lewis Lapham

From the book "Money and Class in America", Lewis Lapham discusses his feelings of discontentment towards modern American perceptions of what truly makes one happy. And that money can buy one anything: clothes, cars, prestige, even happiness. In this United States of Exploitation, “money is the currency of the soul.” As Lewis Lapham states, “money means so many things to us - spiritual as well as temporal - that we are at a loss to …

…can be “counted, stuffed, framed, or mounted over the fireplace.” In a society that so confuses money with success and property with peace, we as Americans have virtually lost “the true definitions of the good, the true, and the beautiful” in our blind adoration of wealth. If our existing practices are to persist, “the use of money as the currency of the soul” will bring us to bankruptcy far sooner than we could ever expect.