Organized Chaos

I am sure I am not breaking new ground when I say that money rules everything in our lives. It is something everyone knows, and has known for years. The value of a green piece of paper with a dead president on it has been driving the way we live our lives for a very long time. I am just as much a victim to this as everyone else is. However, I would like to take the time to actually talk about this.
Money, its values, its worth, are all things that are man made. We have given ourselves these monetary obstacles and now we are struggling to climb over them. A lot of the time I hear people say, "Well if we didn't have money there would be chaos." My question is, what do you call this? Friends stabbing each other in the back to try and get that promotion. Jumping over hurdles to please your boss and doing anything he asks in hopes that you will one day be the one that gets to make the soft serve cones instead of scooping the Italian ice. Stealing others ideas and using them as your own, ultimately costing them a job, just so you can get your paycheck. The sad thing is, these are only the acts of the people that have jobs.
To those who are unemployed and close to giving up, robbery and theft are commonplace. Pickpockets walk the street now more than ever, and drug dealing is a resort that people will quickly go to in order to feed families pay rent. All of this sounds pretty chaotic to me.
Now I am not a saint and am not going to pretend that I am. I am just as materialistic as the next man and my wants greatly outweigh the items I can actually afford. However, I am now taking the time to look at the life I live and see that there must be a better way.
We are all struggling right now, and for a lot of us it is a struggle that will follow us through the rest of our lives and be passed on to our children with our debt. I understand that we are all sprinting full speed to chase the American dream, but I feel like at some point we need to stop running. Take a walk through the park, lay on your backyard hammock on a nice or rainy day, and just appreciate the things you have in your daily life that money could never buy. Maybe if we all just slowed down enough, the American dream will come to us.