People and Lifestyles: Is money an actual problem in a community?

As we continue with our research, I am studying the following:
1. The rejection of Commercialism
2. Less reliance on financially driven motives
3. Communities based on human interaction.
4. Education as a social system

However as we began our research it did appear that money was the enemy and to be blamed. But I found this recently:

I don't agree at all that if we just got rid of money our problems would disappear. The alternative is barter which is far worse, more inconvenient and more susceptible to coercion and unfairness. If you are an apple farmer in a world without money, you can only trade your apples to get things. If you have a drought one year, you're screwed because apples can't be stored for long. Money is what allows a farmer to save when they have a surplus and use that money to buy food, clothes, etc when they have a drought. And this is just one of many ways money can be useful.

Money is a tool and like all tools, can useful or abused. Blaming money for our problems is like when people blame computers or hammers or homes for our problems. It conveniently avoids taking responsibility for our actions while finding some 'evil' to blame our woes on.

Online reference: http://gma.yahoo.com/going-without-money-hurt-economy-one-mans-quest-211049892--abc-news-topstories.html

I think this is very interesting and that with an ethical system 'money' will be a valuable asset to the community.