I don’t think money itself is the problem. Greed is. Greed ensures we never stay satisfied with whatever we have. And if it’s not greed, then it’s the fear of losing what we already have that makes us want to earn more...
Either way, it’s a downward spiral.
A quick disclaimer first so that my intentions here aren't misunderstood - I'm just going to challenge this idea. I mean no disrespect and my attitude is not one that's conflict oriented, so I hope it's not taken as such and I hope you don't mind me debating/challenging it. I just love religion as a topic and I get enthusiastic. In other words, I'm not challenging or being combative toward you, but rather, the concept. This is not because I disagree even necessarily, nor is it intended to stampede over / invalidate your thoughts. (When I challenge concepts/ideas people share, sometimes it's seen as me being combative even though it's not how I see things. I see concepts/ideas as separate objects, not as personal associations with people.)
I've shared the same thoughts as you here before, but at some point I started thinking differently. It's so easy to look at someone else and go, "well this is greed, if they cared about other people more then they wouldn't do X, Y, Z." The problem is...you don't know what they've been through and how those experiences have molded their beliefs and perceptions of the world. You don't know whether they grew up being taught that was right, you don't know whether it was an adaptation to survive, you don't know if they even believe decent human beings exist at all--how can they think about others deserving better treatment if they don't even know good people exist? There are people who have never felt what it's like to be loved, people who believe the world is basically a hostile environment.
Then if you look into other things like narcissism, which is heavily on the rise, you begin to understand that the cause of it is from childhood development combined with temperament (personality) / genetic factors. More specifically, it often develops from parenting that promotes achievement without tending to the child's emotional needs, and not being taught empathy. This is not necessarily the fault of the parents, and sometimes you do have good parents who end up with narcissistic children still. We also know that very few are actually able to change in adulthood, even with efforts. Some may think, "well these are the minorities / exceptions, most people aren't narcissistic" which is true, but at the same time, if you look at many of the most successful politicians, CEOs, celebrities, and other successful and wealthy people, you find that many of them are narcissistic. In fact, that's the very reason why a lot of them have risen to their success. Narcissists are more motivated than others to go, "hey, look at me, I'm great, right?" They often have a high drive to be successful because of their narcissism--and not just successful, but the best, the greatest. Therefore, narcissists are often those rich people we see being "greedy." When they try to change with the help of professionals, most of them can't, and they find that they just can't genuinely care despite their efforts. Does all of this come from greed, or is it the result of human defect?
One more point I'd like to add that would probably trigger most believers, but I'll say it anyway because I'm more interested in truth and facts than censoring myself to shelter peoples' feelings...
If it's something that comes from defect rather than greed (presuming that being greedy or not is a choice like the Bible suggests) - is it the child's fault they were raised in the way they were? Is it their fault this is how their development went? Did they choose it? Of course not. Yet, again, very few are able to ever change. Thus, if the child became this way because of conditions outside of their control, and usually cannot gain control...how is greed the root cause? Wouldn't God then be to blame for allowing those circumstances to develop them in that way?