The problem is that we don't understand that money is a contract, that enables large societies to function, because we treat it as a commodity to mine from society.

Even Econ 101 says money is both medium of exchange and store of value, but a medium needs to circulate, while a store doesn't. Blood is a medium, fat is a store, Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store.

The functionality of money is in its fungibility. we own it like we own the section of road we are using, or the fluids passing through our bodies.

The difference between markets and capitalism is the tool has become the god and goal. Accumulating the bigggest pile of cash has become the primary status symbol of our society.

Since it is a contract, the asset has to be backed by a debt, so our religion of money requires an economy designed to generate debt.

The Federal debt has been growing since the New Deal, so not only was Roosevelt putting unemployed labor back to work, but unemployed capital, as well.

Volcker didn't cure stagflation with higher interest rates, as that only starved money to those willing to borrow and grow the economy, which increases the need for money, while rewarding those sitting on large piles of cash. Reagan cured it with government debt. That pulled surplus money out of the economy and spent it in ways the private sector never would, like a bloated military, but which gave the private sector more work to do.

The reality is that we are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, reciprocal, feedback driven reality and that problem goes much deeper into the collective psyche, than just economics and government.

https://medium.com/predict/peeling-the-paradigm-1ceab7e774b0