I agree with this 100%. However, maybe OP is trying their best and still got a C. All throughout middle and high school I averaged a C because of a learning disorder I have. It wasn't until I went to college and got help did my grades improve.

I don't think that love is equated with the money specifically here. I think the meaning is that the money was a GIFT and gifts ARE equated with love. If the money was actually meant as a reward, it should have been withheld from the beginning until conditions were both explained and met. This sounds to me like probably a lack of effort on the part of both people. OP, potentially, for grades, unless Cs really were their best work; and the father, for inconsistent parenting choices/lack of planning.

Motivation is setting a goal, and rewarding someone for reaching it. Taking away a present already given, because you suddenly decide they don't deserve it anymore, is punishment. And determining punishment after the fact is arbitrary and demotivating.

Now I can see why OP's report card was the way it was.

The money wasn't presented as a reward for doing well in school. Dad said he wanted to share the good fortune he had at work with the family and did not imply that there were conditions with that money. There should have been an initial discussion so children are aware that there is financial compensation for performing well. Frankly, my parents never bought into that and I think it's a poor motivation for doing well in school but sometimes that is all that works. There could be a litany of reasons why the OP received C grades that we're not aware of. The FML is in Dad attaching conditions to a gift after it has been given.

While I agree that money does not equate with love, OP's father initially presented the money as a gift with no conditions. If you think about Christmas/Hanukkah/Etc. gifts, those do equate with love, because they are GIFTS. OP's dad gave a gift because he loved his family, and then took it away after putting conditions on it after the fact. So I can see that being viewed as his love being conditional, even if he didn't mean it that way.

The money was a GIFT, not a reward.

That would be fine if the money wasn't initially given because he 'wanted to share it' before he even thought to ask for report cards. It seems unreasonably harsh to take back what was presented as a gift because you didn't meet arbitrary conditions that you weren't aware of. Plus for all we know OP isn't academically inclined and those are the grades he got after trying his best.

Or the president

I think the way OP's father handled this, instead of showing OP that they can't get by on bad grades, it mostly shows a lack of forethought on the father's part. As a teacher, if I tell my class "everyone gets a pizza party" and then give them pizza but stand by the pizzas with my grade book and turn students away when they get to the front of the line for not having good grades, that doesn't teach a lesson about working harder. It just teaches the students that they can't trust me at my word. This is basically what OP's father did.

your comments are whats wrong with this generation

79, I fail to see how valuing clarity and instructional transparency is something "wrong with this generation".