Lately I've been encountering friends and colleagues whose lives have been in the red because of financial problems. Not just the kind that may be solved by strict austerity measures, but that which transforms weak-willed innocents to knife-wielding convicts in this country. For an instant, I've imagined being in the shoes of those men and women behind bars we see on television night after night. The father who knifed the neighbor just to buy milk for a starving infant, the woman who stole from the pay-roll for his son's tuition, for the hostage-taker who went mad over his wife's medical bills. Empathy. Sympathy.

You do what you have to do. Simple as that.

And that is what's been keeping me up at night lately. Somehow I believe it to be true, and this one gets a nod from the universe and numerous belief systems: Humanity must not mix with money in this way. I cannot fathom it. Men should not be burdened by money. Money should not be the yes or no to life itself. Yet in this century, it is.

At 23, I'm suddenly finding this hard to accept.

Printed paper may not make the world go 'round but if the earth stopped revolving it CAN have people revolve around the earth. Yes, the world is filled with money-laundering, plundering scum but there are a lot of good people too. Good people who have never done others wrong once in their lives yet lose their minds, their lives, over money. I feel so helpless; I hate it all. Fucking hate it.

The worst thing is you succumb to it. Living simple is not even an option anymore. After the hatred comes the drive that you yourself should strive for millions, just to give the system a big fuck you. Or prevent your loved ones from ever going through terrible times again. Arrrrgh.

Have I mentioned I hate it?

Yeah. God help us all.