The concept of money, as the medium which enables this system, should be considered.
It functions as a contract, with one side an asset and the other a debt, that serves as a useful medium of exchange, but we have come to see it as a commodity, to save and store. Econ 101 says it is medium of exchange, store of value and price setting device.
Yet a medium is dynamic, while a store is static. Blood is a medium, fat is a store. Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store.
So in order to store the asset side, similar amounts of debt have to be created. which causes a centripetal effect, as positive feedback draws the asset side to the center of the community, while negative feedback pushes the debt to the edges.
Yet as the medium of exchange, money and the financial system are the circulation function of society, like blood and arteries are to the body, so this effect is like the heart telling the hands and feet they don’t need so much blood and should work harder for what they do get.
We have to understand that money should really only function as a medium and be carefully regulated as such. No more pouring more vodka in the punch bowl, when it runs low. Which means finding ways to drain off the surplus. What if the government were to tax out what it currently borrows? Ha. Though if the threat were real enough, people would quickly start finding other ways to store value.
As a medium, we own money like we own the section of road we are using, or the fluids flowing through our bodies.
We all mostly save for many of the same reasons; housing, children, healthcare, retirement, etc. If ways could be evolved to save for these as communal assets, than everyone trying to save for them individually, with our bank accounts as our economic umbilical cord, we would have less atomized societies, mediated by an all powerful banking system and ruled by political systems at their disposal.
Admittedly the cultural forces are currently too ingrained to change this system, but it is on the verge of collapse, as those being piled with debt include many of the younger generation, so they are not going to be able to sustain it.
