Money - The Driving Force???

I have always wondered - is money the most important thing in the world?? My mind has always hovered between dreams of being a billionaire to the likes of being Rip Van Winkle.
Why was money invented? So that everyone could share their produce / product in a better manner than the barter system. So that things that are more difficult to make / create get more value, or 'money'. This was a great system. One could, based on the amount of hard work put in, get what they wanted.
But very soon, possession of rare items became very valuable. Rarer an item, costlier it became, irrespective of its purpose. Thus began a village market economy.
With the growth of larger civilisations, man management became more important. With the establishment of kingdoms, the military and the ruling class started controlling it by way of taxes and possession of land.
The worth of physical work became lesser and lesser. And the feudal system meant concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. The actual people working on the fields or in smithies were paid poorly and were at the mercy of the lords. The system differentiated people into different classes (castes in case of India) and it was very difficult for people to move to a higher class as it was pre-destined by virtue of their birth into a family of that class.
With industries and cities getting prominence with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (occurring in the 18th - 19th century in the West and much much later in the east), traders became the benificiaries of this 'worthlessness' of factory workers. Traders made huge profits and this money pumped back to make more profit.
The division was now made based on money rather than 'class'. The new system still strongly differentiated between the haves and the havenots but gave the have-nots a better chance to move up the class ladder, if they had strong will-power. But the odds were highly skewed against that a person born in a poor family because, it meant he would have lesser money to start with and not much education. But still, the system gave them a chance.
This exploitation continued and prompted many intellectuals to stand up against this. This lead to the Communist movement, the most famous intellectual associated with it being Karl Marx. He foresaw that this discrepancy between the bourgousie and the ploretariat (the working class) would give rise to a situation where the latter will overthrow the former and set up a Communist state, a utopian state where everyone gets everything according to their needs and capability and will reach such a stage that government will cease to exist. To reach this state, initially the state has to be very powerful and shape the society for this change by uplifting the poor and down-trodden (socialism). But, in this process, as the state gets powerful, it also becomes corrupt and anti-progress. It starts to stagnate and autocratic. This has what has happened to all the Communist / Socalist countries in this world. China (post '80s) being the only exception that too because it shunned many Communist ideas and welcomed capitalism. Being a single-party government and people not having the right to protest, it became even easier than in capitalist countries.
Communist policies have had their effect in the western capitalist countries. These very countries which fought tooth-and-nail with communism during the Cold War cannot today have pension funds, social security allowance, strong labour laws, etc. which protect the working class against exploitation.
Wait a minute... what am I doing here? I was thinking of money and i went into history, communism and all.... Why? Well... i think this was some kind of analysis on what money has done to this world. What I have discussed is only a small part of a larger issue. I also helps me think what money means to me.
As you can see, if we were living a few hundred years back, money would not have had the same importance. Pride and family values were more important. This is not to say that money is everything now but has become more important.
But whats the point of money beyond a point? Beyond a point, it becomes a responsibility and just a issue of prestige or 'status'.
Presently, for me, more than money (I still need it to feed and clothe myself!) is job satisfaction and a job which will propel me into a good career.
Also, I think in the long run, I would like to do something for the society. I dont know how i will do it and dont know when start doing it. But if I do get to do it, that will be equivalent to a billion dollars.
The most satiating thing is the fact that I have left a mark on this earth....
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Thanks a lot for reading this article.
I know I have written a very messy article. Please do give your comments.

Indian Cinema

Hi guys! In this post, I turn my head to something which has filled a lot of my free time this hols or for that matter any other hols - cinema, cinema-related TV programmes, and news about cinema. I have followed Tamil, Telugu and Hindi cinema most of my life. Started watching Hindi from around the age of 10 and English only after I joined college. So, I have hardly been influenced by Hollywood though I read a lot about it now.

In general, cinema has not just been a medium of entertainment or a pastime. It has influenced me in many ways - educating against social evils, tackling social problems, corruption, to live for society and for others, inspiration from different potrayals of modern-day Rama. All these in perfectly commercial movies! I guess its a lot to do with what one takes from a film.