The paradoxical freedom of money. A socio-philosophical perspective following Simmel and Marx

What is the relationship between freedom and money? In the liberal tradition of philosophy and economics, money is usually understood as a mere means, the introduction of which facilitates the exchange of goods, but has no further far-reaching social consequences. In contrast to this, this working paper will work out the connection between money and (in)freedom. Following the tradition of critical social philosophy and in discussion with Marx, Simmel and the more recent sociology of money, the paradoxical character of this socially opened freedom is presented in a first step: On the one hand, money cultivates an individual form of freedom of choice in capitalist economies. On the other hand, money structures access to social wealth in an unequal and disciplining way: Depending on the individual’s disposal of financial resources, one is required in different ways to sell one’s own labor power in order to secure access to goods and one’s own reproduction. In a second step, this paradoxical form of freedom is questioned with regard to its tendency towards alienation: insofar as the freedom opened up by the institution of money conceals its social enabling reason, it can be understood as a fetishized form of freedom.