The reason markets work, is that they epitomize an ecosystem, in which individual entities rise and fall, according to strengths and weakness, leaving the overall system fairly stable.
Yet what enables an ecosystem is a fairly stable medium and field of play. In nature that would be air, water, stable ground, etc. In markets, it is a fairly stable medium of exchange and generally stable and fairly administered rules and regulations.
Yet in capitalism, the medium, money, is controlled by one of the players, not as part of the field of play, fairly refereed. Which is why capitalism is not synonymous with a market based economy.
That is why the tool has become a god. The medium has become the message. It's no longer about a healthy economy, supporting a healthy society, but the accumulation of the most money as an end in itself.
People are linear, goal oriented crreatures, but nature is cyclical, circular, reciprocal and feedback generated. While markets need money to circulate, people see it as the signal to extract and store.
Econ 101 says money is both medium of exchange and store of value, but a medium is dynamic, while a store is static. Blood is a medium, while fat is a store. Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store. They don't mix that well.
Since money functions as a contract, with the asset backed by a debt, storing the asset requires generating debt. Which creates a centripetal effect, as positive feedback draws the asset to the center, while nagative feedback pushes the debt to the edges. Since money and banking serve as the value circulation mechanism of society, this 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. The Ancients used debt jubilees to reset this process, but after a milllenia plus of feudalism and several centuries of colonialism and industrializion, topped off by several decades of compounding debt, the consequences are only now becoming unavoidable.
The functionality of money is in its fungibility. We own it like we own the section of road we are using, or the air and water flowing through our bodies. It is a public utility and needs to be understood as such.
If you don't like the larger systems, find communities starting their own systems. Given the powers that be seem determined to bury the current system, likely more than a few will be popping up in the coming years.
