Money: To Have or To Be

I have to confess something bad I've done years ago. I still regret it; and there's no way I can repair the harm I've done. This is what happened. I walked up to a cashpoint to withdraw money. A 100 CHF bank note was already there in the machine distribution slot, waiting to be collected, obviously forgotten by my predecessor. I looked around and saw nobody. I took the bank note. At that time, I had a job and earned money, so I wasn't in need. I had simply stolen that money, driven by some kind of greed. I hate to say it, but I like money, somehow! Let's openly talk about money and the special relationship we probably all have with it.

Introduction

Several thousands years ago, money presented as cattle (which made it harder to just take from a cashpoint)! It then evolved across centuries to take the form, among other, of precious metals, coins, and eventually, approximately from the the 7th century AD, as paper money. Today money also exists as accounting entries in the books of financial institutions, rather than as physical cash, used for credits or electronic money transfers.

Collection of various bank coins: a medium of exchange and a way to store wealth

Money, in all its forms, is both a medium of exchange, and a way to store wealth. The former can be viewed as a useful tool allowing goods and services to be traded easily and efficiently, the latter can turn into a goal in itself, nurtured by greed.

In this blog post, we will dig a bit further into how we relate to money, both in everyday life and in science.

Money: a Tool or a Goal?

Back in the 1970s, Erich Fromm, a German social psychologist and humanistic philosopher, discussed two modes of existence in his book "To Have or to Be".

The Having mode focuses on material possessions, acquisitiveness, and control, leading to greed, envy and violence. On the contrary, the Being mode is based on sharing, love, and on meaningful and creative activity. That mode leads to inner freedom, spontaneity, and a deep sense of aliveness. Under the Having mode, money is primarly seen as a goal in itself, meant to be accumulated, whereas under the Being mode, money is a tool for meaningful exchange.

Fromm argues that modern society prioritizes Having over Being, which contributes to widespread dissatisfaction (and of course ecological disaster). True fulfillment, he believes, comes from shifting toward the Being mode. I guess we all agree with that theory, and we all have in mind the simple graph below showing that over a certain point, more money doesn't make anyone any happier. But I also think that we all have both modes of existence within us, embedded in our human nature, and that we balance between them constantly. When I told my 6-year-old son to ask God for help in liking going to school, he prayed, head in his hands, in these terms: "God please help me find diamonds!"

We should reflect on which mode we want to nurture, and on where that shifting point (represented by the blue lightning on the graph) lays for us, as an individual, and as a society. Some years ago, I defined the budget I needed for basic needs (rent for a small apartment, health insurance, food, mobility, some extras for hobby), and discarded many useless material "needs" (TV, big apartment, big car, shopping, etc). This allowed me to decrease my working time, and liberated huge amounts of time for other meaningful activities, which truly made me happier. Sylvia also gives many tips on amplifying your happiness by embracing minimalism.

Happiness as a function of income: over a certain shifting point, more money doesn't increase happiness

Money in Science

Let's go back to Fromm's modes and see how they apply to science. In short, we could say that science conducted under

• the Being mode pursues unbiased, curiosity-driven questions without pressure to align with market interests. Such science supports societal benefits (e.g., public health, environmental sustainability, fundamental science), and promotes collaboration and open dissemination, whereas under
  

• the Having mode, it aligns with commercial interests, prioritizing profit-driven projects, often subjected to intellectual property restrictions

Academic scientific research is primarily financed through public funding, which safeguards the Being mode. However, reliance on private corporate funding or public-private partnerships is increasingly common, pushing science slowly but certainly towards the Having mode. Finding financial support can be a struggle in academia, and temptation to accept corporate money is understandably high. However, when accepting corporate money, the risk to lose scientific integrity is real, and strong ethical guidelines must prevail (e.g., disclosing conflicts of interests).

This is where your personal relationship with money comes in, and where you stand in the balance between the Being and the Having modes of existence. Would you have taken that bank note offered to you at the cashpoint? And, does it make a difference whose money it was?

Conclusion

Whether we feel comfortable talking about money or not, whether we like it or hate it, whether we consider needing a lot or a little of it to be happy, let's be honest, we all need (some) money. Money, in its essence, is neutral—it is neither good nor bad, neither virtuous nor corrupting. What matters is the role we allow it to play in our lives. Sometimes, as in my own story at the cashpoint, our choices reveal more about our values than we would like to admit. Those moments of weakness can stay with us, serving as reminders that greed is never far away, even when we don’t need more.

But money can also be a tool to create freedom, connection, and meaning—if we consciously choose to nurture the Being mode rather than the Having mode. Each of us walks that line daily, whether in our personal spending, in the way we structure our lives, or in the scientific and societal systems we support.

So the question is not just whether we would take the forgotten banknote—it is whether we are willing to examine the deeper ways money influences our decisions, our happiness, and even our integrity. In the end, our relationship with money reflects the kind of life we want to live, and the kind of world we want to build.

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Rebecca Savioz for WordifyScience