If money is the root of all evil, what is the root of money?

I came across this quote, possibly by Ayn Rand: "If money is the root of all evil, what is the root of money?" 

It's one of those observations that stops you in your tracks because it flips a familiar saying on its head and forces you to think deeper. 

We're so used to hearing that money corrupts or causes problems that we rarely ask what creates our relationship with money in the first place. 

The question suggests that money itself might just be a symptom of something else entirely, maybe our desires, our insecurities, our need for security or status. It's the kind of philosophical judo move that takes a moral cliché and turns it into a genuine inquiry about human nature. 

Whether you agree with Rand's philosophy or not, the question itself is genuinely interesting because it refuses to accept the surface-level blame we usually assign to money and asks us to dig one layer deeper into our own natures.

Money is not the root of all evil.

We are.