"Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" lines it out pretty well,"

Thanks for that Janie, most interesting. I just picked up the gist from Wiki. An illuminating quote (discussed by Weber) from Benjamin Franklin made me interested in the cult of money which seems to have flourished particularly well in the States, which is also far more overtly Christian than the UK today (albeit not really the kind of Christianity I recognise):


"Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism – notably Calvinism – favored rational pursuit of economic gain and worldly activities which had been given positive spiritual and moral meaning.[31] [...]
To illustrate and provide an example, Weber quoted the ethical writings of Benjamin Franklin:

    Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides. ... Remember, that money is the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again is seven and threepence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds.(Italics in the original)"