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Leslie Ramirez
Money Makes the World Go round
In Douglas Adams The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, money is
highlighted as the motive behind every action, secretly indicating that
human and alien species are selfish. People go to college so that they can
land a better job and make more money. They work at jobs that they hate,
but dont quit because they need or want the money. Young girls date
ridiculously older men and take care of them for money. In The Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy, aliens throw people off of spaceships for money, men
knock down houses for money, presidents steal spaceships to find riches. Its
kind of crazy actually, how money affects both earth and the galaxy, even
though they are quadrillion miles away.
In the very first chapter of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Adams
introduced the concept of money being a motive. Mr. L. Prosser, who worked
for the local council, was trying to demolish Arthurs house. The purpose of
knocking down the house was to build a bypass that allows some people to
dash from point A to Point B very fast while other people dash from point B to
point A very fast (Adams 7). Mr. L. Prosser was eager to build the bypass. He
told Arthur, this bypass has got to be built and its going to be built!
(Adams 6) What kind of person is eager to knock down another mans house?
Mr. L. Prosser didnt know if knocking down the house was going to result in
Arthur becoming homeless. Even if he knew he wouldnt care, as long as hes
getting paid of course.

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The novel makes it very clear that Mr. Prosser was a selfish man who
only cared for money. Before telling Arthur Dent about the plan to demolish
his house, he wiped a couple of his windows and charged him a fiver
(Adams 8), so on top of taking away his house, hes also trying to take away
his money. On the day of the demolition, Arthur sat in front of the bulldozer,
preventing it from knocking down his house. While this occurred, Mr. Prosser
was arguing with a spokesman for the bulldozer drivers about whether or
not Arthur Dent constituted a mental health hazard, and how much they
should get paid if he did. (Adams 15) Mr. Prosser doesnt even feel a tad bit
of guilt for trying to knock down Arthurs house. Hes trying to get paid more!
This just come to show how inhumane people are when money is involved.
Almost every person on earth is as selfish as Mr. Prosser, especially
when it comes down to receiving money. There have been incidents in which
people have been killed because they owed money to someone, usually a
drug dealer. There have also been incidents in which people, in desperate
need of money, get paid from another person to beat someone up. This
happens very often and the person getting paid will actually do the job. It is
often heard that very young girls will marry dying, rich, old men so that they
can be his prime beneficiary from his life insurance and keep all of his riches.
Money makes people do unspeakable acts and thats what I believe Adams
was trying to portray in his first chapter.
In chapter two, Adams includes the topic of money by having Ford,
Arthurs alien friend, and Arthur get drinks at the pub bar. The conversation

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that Ford and Arthur had did not necessarily need to take place at a bar. The
conversation could have taken place on the sidewalk or in a park. I believe
that Adams had the conversation take place at the bar to show that, even
when the world is about to end and people are aware of it, people still
depend on money. Ford had told Arthur and the bartender at the pub bar that
the world was going to end in a couple of minutes. Before Ford left the bar,
he bought four packets of peanuts for his trip to the galaxy. After asking for
the peanuts, the barman said, There you are, sir twenty-eight pence if
youd be so kind (Adams 29). The barman knew the world was going to end!
Why would he still ask for the money? Did Adams try to slightly portray that
money rules over people? If you ask for money, knowing youre going to die
in a few minutes, it should no longer have any value. Regardless, people still
want money because money is all theyve ever cared about and worked for.
Arthur was still skeptical about the world ending, so when he heard the
bulldozers knocking his house down, he ran as quickly as he could to what
used to be his home. Little did he know that his house was going to be
destroyed by aliens in a few seconds. While he was running towards the
house, Arthur yelled out, Ill sue the council for every penny its got!
(Adams 31) I think that Adams was trying to imply that in this situation, most
people would think about doing the same thing. Sometimes fighting over
money isnt the best thing to do. People are never promised a tomorrow, but
yet they still worry about money all the time. I believe that Adams purposely
had earth destroyed as soon as Arthur claimed to sue to show that money

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really isnt everything. The world was going to cease to exist, so suing the
council was no longer going to be Arthurs main problem.
People in real life have the same instinct as Arthur. If a person gets
injured in a restaurant or retail place, the first thing they think about is how
much money theyre going to make from the company for getting injured.
This seems like the right choice to do sometimes because now the person
has to go to doctors visits to get a check up. If its really bad theyll be
rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, which by the way is extremely
expensive! Other times, the person will fake an injury just to get money.
Some people will go as far as to plan an injury or jump in front of a car so
that they can receive money. Money makes people go to extremes. I think
what Adams would say to these people is that it is not worth it. Getting in an
accident on purpose can result in a persons death and if death does occur,
money will no longer be of use to that person. There would be no point of
getting into the accident in the first place.
Faking an accident is fraud. Fraud often occurs here in the United
States, and apparently in the galaxy as well. The President of the Imperial
Galactic Government spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for
fraud. (Adams 38) President Zaphod is completely driven by money. Adams
indicates this by having an excerpt from The Hitchhikers Guide, describing
the role of a Galactic President and also including a little bit of Zaphods past.
Even in his early years as Galactic President, Zaphod committed a crime that
is usually done to gain money. Later on in the book, he steals the Heart of

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gold, a huge starship, one hundred and fifty meters long, shaped like a
sleek running shoe, perfectly white and mind-bogglingly beautiful. (Adams
43) Zaphod could have stole any other starship, but being the money driven
alien that he is, he had to steal the most prized starship. Talk about go big or
go home, right?
Not only did President Zaphod steal the starship because of its
luxurious features, he stole it for even bigger riches. His plan was to take the
starship to Magrathea, a planet whos life was wild, rich, and largely tax
free. (Adams 115) Adams didnt quite explain why Zaphod wanted to go to
Magrathea, but the reasons are pretty clear. There is no doubt that Zaphod
went to Magrathea to steal some of the planets riches or to stay there and
live a luxurious life, or to create a luxurious planet just for himself.
I believe what Adams is trying to imply with all of Zaphods situation is
that people on earth abuse their power for riches and wealth, which is
completely true! Presidents from various countries abuse their power, they
also commit fraud so that a little bit of their countries money goes to them.
Recently, there has been a lot of presidents who let drug dealers smuggle
drugs into their country, as long as they get their share. This is illegal in
every country, but nobody will ever snitch on a president. People know better
than to mess with those above them, especially the president, because they
can get themselves killed.
Everyone does something they dont want to, as long as they get
something out of it. This relates to both The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

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and real life. Adams creates this fictional character, who didnt quite have a
name, but was called a Vogon. When the world was ending, Ford and Arthur
hitched a ride by a Vogon ship. The Vogons didnt welcome their guests and
decided to throw them off into space. The Cogon, who was supposed throw
them out of the ship, was questioned by Ford to conclude if he truly liked his
job. Ford asked, Do you really enjoy this sort of thing?... stomping around,
shouting, pushing people out of space ships... (Adams 70) The Cogon didnt
exactly know if he enjoyed it, but he did it anyway because that is what he
was paid to do.
Adams included these examples throughout the text to create a bigger
meaning. Money deceives all. It drives people to kill and throw others off of
ships. Its the problem to everything and yet the answer to everything.
Money makes the world go round.