Forget gory video games. Forget paintball Uzis. The most disturbing toy offered for sale to America's young is the Little Tikes Shopping Cart.  Yes, these little plastic shopping carts, produced by no fewer than five manufacturers, are the sinister carriers of a virus. One that infects the human in the larval stage, and does not leave the body until death - a virus that most of you call money.  Money is a virus in the most basic sense of the word: it takes over. It takes over everything. It has an amazing power to infect and transform every aspect of human life. It is inert and lifeless outside of the human body, but when it gets inside - watch out.  Karl Marx figured this out about 120 years ago. But the creep has really sped up.  Money has taken over our leisure time. Think about those miniature shopping carts. Have you ever seen a little kid playing with a Little Tikes Shopping Cart and pretending to be a homeless person? No, indeed. That's not exactly the idea.  The carts convince kids that buying stuff is fun. And it works. Americans call shopping their No. 1 leisure activity. In other words, when Americans get home from work all they want to do is go run out and spend all the money they've earned.  Money has taken over our politics, and not just campaign finance. It's taken over the way you and I think about politics.  The rallying cry of "Where are our tax dollars going?" was not a widespread phenomenon until the 1980s. People used to be citizens - now we are taxpayers, implying that we only have membership in the United States because we pay for it. Our relationship with government has been transformed into something largely fiscal.  It's taken over our health care. After healthcare corporations exploded in the last 20 years, the shareholders demand a certain rate of profit on something that is rarely profitable. Money - and the desire to acquire more of it - is dragging the whole healthcare system down.  It's taken over our minds. Worrying about money can grind into one's brain like a scratchy Lou Reed pop song and never get out, despite the fact that it's only money.