BlackEconomics.org®
Purpose: To reveal the efficacy of economics in determining the nature and veracity of widely perceived realities.
Introduction
There are so many ways to open this essay as we begin our sweet climb to joy and optimism during the End-of-Year-Holidays and onset of the New Year. One thing is for certain, discussions about money and love will proliferate during the period with expectations that wellbeing and bottom lines will be lifted during 2026.i
Money
On the “money” front we often quote the following “answer-question:” “The answer is always money: Now what’s the question?” This perspective on the role of money in our lives is well founded in many respects. The perceived reality is that with sufficient money in hand or on record in our accounts, nearly all things can be obtained or attained directly or indirectly. On the other hand, we would be well benefited by recalling one of “The Greatest’s” (Muhammad Ali’s) sharpest and most piercing comments: (paraphrasing) “A Black person in America can be rich, but there are places he/she still cannot go. To the people who control those places, Negroes are still just ‘Niggers.’”ii The foregoing serves as an example of how racial discrimination can dampen dramatically the power that money might otherwise command. It is important to note that “discrimination” is an important topic within the very important economics subfield, “Labor and Demographics Economics.”
Inflation is another factor that can constrain money’s economic power and is an incessant concern for those spending money. To see inflation at its worst, consider hyperinflation. Undergraduate economics textbooks often include a photograph portraying conditions during the well-known German hyperinflation during the early 1920s. Typically, the photograph features a German shopper pushing a human-powered wheel barrel to the bakery to purchase a loaf of bread, and the wheel barrel is overflowing with German marks. In this case, money is a partial, but incomplete answer. While a wheel barrel of German marks could barely purchase a loaf of bread, a fraction of a US cent was the purchase price of the bread in US dollars.iii
Continuing this money subtopic from a futuristic vantage point, it is safe to say categorically that money alone will not suffice for Black Americans (Afrodescendants) when Reparations come. The latter statement is associated directly with at least two practical implications: (1) It might be very problematic for the US Government, the most culpable and capable party to provide Reparations to African Descendants of “slaves,” to pay Reparations in money alone—either as a lumpsum or through periodic payments because it is so deeply indebted; and (2) we should not be surprised that payment of Reparations in dollars alone could produce disastrous results for us. That is, a full lumpsum Reparations payment would increase the probability of individual lumpsum payments, which would precipitate the disaster. As Baba Lumumba of Umoja House in Washington, D.C. pointed out a year or so ago on The Carl Nelson Show, current generations of Black Americans are not the primary inurers of Reparations for Black Americans. Rather, our ancestors were the primary inurers. Hence, Reparations should be enjoyed not only by current Black American generations, but also by Black American generations to come.
Love
The Beatles’ 1967 hit “All You Need Is Love,” crystalizes the sentiments of many concerning the essentiality of love in life. Of course, this essay not only asks whether this sentiment is true, but also whether it is always true?iv We address the question in its duality: Why and under which circumstances would “love” be “insufficient” or “sufficient” to sustain life. However, we commence with a comment on the definition of love.
Depending on the language selected, one can identify many intended meanings for love, but for current purposes we consider just two: (1) That heartfelt notion expressed most vividly and eloquently in the New Testament’s book of Corinthians I: Chapter 13; and (2) the love generated by those engaged in sexual contact (the love of love making), which was front and center during the “Summer of Love,” when the Beatles released their hit.
Taking love as a “notion” first, it is insufficient to sustain life because, when one reduces the notion of love (charity) to “providing what the beloved needs/requires, not necessarily what the beloved desires,” it becomes obvious that the beloved may reflect or embody needs beyond those available from the loving party. That is, the beloved may require injections of mental, physical, and/or spiritual phenomena to sustain life that are unavailable from the loving party alone, which must use other resources to meet the beloved’s needs. However, if there are no such required injections, then love may suffice for the sustainment of life.
Similarly, when love from “love making” is considered, it, too, is not always sufficient to sustain life. No doubt, love making can produce new life. However, we are concerned not only with extending life, but with sustaining life. A creative mind may imagine a case in a nonmaterial world where inhabitants engage solely in love making, which may not produce offspring, but may produce all other essential substances for life. However, we do not exist in such an imaginary world. Accordingly, this case is irrelevant.
Another ”love” subtopic worthy of consideration is discussed in a BlackEconomics.org October 2024 essay entitled, “A Stew for Winning the Global Socioeconomic Race War.”v The essay describes how Black Americans and Black People of the World can leverage our love-making power along with that of other non-Blacks through a love war to transform the world’s hue increasingly toward Blackness (Brownness) alone, which is believed to be its original state. Believe it or not, the love war is on, and given genetic science and the evolution of populations worldwide, Black People of the world possess excellent prospects for producing the tautologous truth: “Love is all we need” to recapture our assigned roles as vicegerents and dressers and keepers of the Earth. When Black People reattain that state, then our control of the Earth will enable our self-directed production of all that is required to sustain our lives and elevate our wellbeing.
Conclusion
This essay clarifies that money is not always and everywhere an omnipotent solution for meeting needs, and that love is incapable of serving as a sole source for sustaining life. However, we believe that the following two highly prized and often used BlackEconomics.org statements are sufficient to fill gaps that accompany money’s and love’s limitations:
- Knowledge is the most important thing in the universe.
- The mind is the most powerful instrument available to humans.
Specifically, we reiterate that if Black Americans (any People for that manner), agree with and believe the just-given two statements, then:
- Begin with an intent/purpose to use knowledge to identify appropriate supporting or substantiating factors that are linked directly to our perceived realities about money and love.
- Marry the just described factors to our perceived realities about money and love and use our powerful mind to operationalize the resulting outcomes properly.
Using the just-described method, we can work to ensure that money is sufficient to fulfil almost all our desires/requirements, and that love as a notion or as an emotional attracting force that sustains relationships between two humans going steady can both become nearly tautological in nature.
©BlackEconomics.org®, LLC
11/29/25
Endnotes
i The Youtube.com URLS for “money” and “love” in this sentence are: “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays (1973) and “Love is the Answer” by England Dan & John Ford Coley (1979), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDiTv1JgLIo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d404PeooWl8&list=RDd404PeooWl8&start_radio=1, respectively. (Ret. 112725)
ii While not documented explicitly, our recollection is that the paraphrased statement was uttered by the Nation of Islam’s Min. Louis Farrakhan during one of his many lectures in Chicago.
iii According to Google’s LLM AI BOT, the exchange rate in November 1923 at the height of Germany’s hyperinflation was 4.2 trillion German marks to 1.0 USD dollar. (Ret. 112725).
iv The Beatles (1967). “All You Need is Love.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg&list=RD_7xMfIp-irg&start_radio=1 (Ret. 113025). This Beatles’ production was released in July of 1967 as side A of a non-album record with “Baby You’re a Rich Man” on the B side.
v Brooks Robinson (2024). “A Stew for Winning the Global Socioeconomic Race War.” BlackEconomics.org. https://www.blackeconomics.org/BEFuture/asfwtgsrw101824.pdf (Ret. 112725).