As I was looking for interesting news, I came across an article on January 18 which definately caught my attention. It talks about how the price of gold has remained steady at around $1,130/ oz. Now, I don't know if you realize this but the price of gold 3 years ago was very different than it is today. Because of this, there is a "gold rush" hitting cities across the globe, where companies such as cash4gold are trying to buy as much gold as possible only to sell it to refineries and get more money for it. This catches my attention in the sense that it relates to what Aristotle is talking about in our reading. This way of using money to buy gold and turn it into more money, sounds alot like the kind of usury that Aristotle describes, which is using money to make money. Also, this cycle represents an "artificial art of acquisition" because it is improper and ultimately unlimited in its reach.
The proper use of gold would be to make products like jewelry and luxury items, for the benefit of others. But when gold is used for making money, and that money used for buying more gold in order to acquire more money, it becomes a vicious circle where people start fetishizing money, and turns into a perversion. Just as we discussed in class, the "natural art of acquisition" is the best for Aristotle, because it involves the "proper" use of an object (which is to obtain something other than the object), and it is limited because it satisfies biological need.
The way i see it, this is not what is happening with the gold buying/selling industry, and it is the complete opposite of what Aristotle would agree with.
Here is the link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60G01H20100118?type=goldMktRpt
Monday, January 18, 2010
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