It takes a disaster in the village

“Would that it could always be so!  No one richer, none poorer, than his fellow; no coveting the other’s goods; no envy; no greedy grasping for more than one’s fair share of that given for all.  True it is, I reflected, that money is the root of all evil, the curse of our civilization, seeing that it is the instrument which frail mortals use to take unjust advantages.  What a difference those few days when there was no money, or when money had no value!  Christ walked the ruined city and reigned over a willing people.” – Charles B. Sedgwick, “The Fall of San Francisco”