Jacob Needleman, in Money and the Meaning of Life tells us,
“In no other culture or civilization that we know of has money been such a pervasive and decisive influence. In the world we now live in, money enters into everything human beings do, into every aspect and pocket of life . . . . We cannot study ourselves, as we are, nor can we understand our neighbor, without calmly observing our own selves in the thick of the money game…The study of ourselves in relationship to money is the hidden key to seeing ourselves as we really are.”