the sacred nature of money in american capitalism

*so happy to be back. sorry for the delay.

in a society which values, forthrightly, money as the razon'det (sp?) for labor, which I think we can say is for most the body of everyday existence, that is, that labor and the struggle for the means to continue (whose exchange form is money) is the major pursuit of life, money is neverthess hidden and not discussed directly. This secrecy gives it the characteristics of the sacred, so that conversations regarding employment, which is of course essential to everyday existence as it does, for the majorety of people, determine who they will be spending their time with every day (this must be considered of major importance to their lives), that although these conversations have money as their foundation and are essentially negotiations about money, the money is never mentioned until the very end, the climax, of the discussion (said discussion possibly lasting months). the secret nature of the dollar ammounts being alluded to gives them a sacred tinge: that these are the all powerful figures, that are so powerful they must not be mentioned outside of the sacred context (the closing negotiation), that they have the power to eliminate people from your life as surely as if they ceased to exist. breaking the taboo regarding their sacred context, also, results in excommunication as a candidate "only" concerned with money should not be considered.

at the edges of employment, when one is changing jobs, for example, the sacred figures are called to mind in a daily existence that tries to forget their importance for it's own protections, because the stress of having the higher world looking down over your shoulder would makes life working life too difficult: the stresses, rivalries and competitiveness of open salary negotiations are so important and so powerful to the worker that the work itself is in eminent danger of being neglected in favor of them. They are the true work which is after the true purpose of all such work--the money. therefore, no one is supposed to know anyone eleses salary, and salaries are never to be discussed or mentioned, but rather forgotten, as the steel bars that hold up the office tower are ignored behind the drywall. at the edges of employment, when one is looking at new jobs, the comparison of salaries is unavoidable and the money shines through the cracks and colors everything nearby.

This can cause people to behave in strange ways, as the presence of the sacred often does, by imputing a feeling of powerlessness to those who have to bow before it's might and resentment in those who forgot that this arbiter of their lives and the people in them was always lurking behind the scenes, validating or invalidating everything, to those who feel extraordinary worth when their communion with the divine comes out in their favor, regardless of the relationships that they have trampled, former benefactors spit upon, human interactions and dependencies, build over months or years, ripped out by their roots.

I should also note that the extremely stressful environment surrounding the sacred dollars does benefit the employer (who creates it) because the stress level associated with dealing with is make employees less likely to question their underpinnings and ensures that only the strongest and most determined, most ruthless, most phsychotic, or simply most able to deal with the stress, will demand more money, risk the unknown, and meet emplyers closer to their true dollar limit.