Seen as the source of all ills (greed for it), or as the enabler of all good things (many economists and charitable fund raisers), money is seen as dirty, not to be talked about, essential, the focus of most political debate.

In fact, money – as a resource – is neutral, ethically speaking. How it is acquired, how it is spent, and what purposes it is used for are the questions with a moral overtone. And wider society should welcome the Friends Provident Foundation's desire to have a wideranging, far reaching debate.

For me, there are three key points:

• • the duty to make life fairer;

• • ensuring that money is given well, not badly;

• • and the need to create a culture that encourages people to use their money for social good.

Making life fairer

First, life is unfair. But we have, as individuals and as society, a duty to attempt to make it fairer. In Jewish terms, this means the giving of tsedakah, usually translated as charity, but in fact meaning ‘social justice’. All of us are obliged to give 10% of our income or our wealth.

From this idea comes the idea of tithing. But central to the Jewish thinking in this area is that we are not doing anything particularly virtuous by giving 10%. The real charity (over and above duty) is giving upwards of 20%, and time, energy, devotion, love. Those deeds are called deeds of loving kindness, and are of a different order. Even if money is involved, it is likely that it is not money alone.

So all of us have a duty to give. That idea of evening up by individual giving, leading ultimately to the use of progressive taxation as a way of society evening up a bit, is widely accepted. Money from rich to poor, from fortunate to unfortunate, from old to young or young to old.