Money: It's not a Ponzi scheme, not debt, not IOU's. Money is an instrument of entitlement. It's what enables you or somebody else to purchase things or settle

Money: It's not a Ponzi scheme, not debt, not IOU's. Money is an instrument of entitlement. It's what enables you or somebody else to purchase things or settle (actual) debts. Not really debt. Money began as anything with wide-appeal and a long shelf life, like metals, spices, furs, tobacco, etc. Mostly it's whenever people get into the habit of pricing things in terms of those wide-appeal/long-shelf-life things that a kind of money is created. (Hey, BitCoin anyone?) I mean, along the way there were places that issued certificates that would pay the bearer on demand whatever such certificates might tender, such as gold, silver, tobacco leaves, buckskins, etc. Almost as good as the actual thing. Actually, certificates might be better - easier to collect, store and transport. A lo now certificates can be money. The only trick is in getting people to generally have faith in them. (Hey, BitCoin anyone? Again?) Fiat currency - something that's money by dint of hegemonic force - is something we've all grown accustomed to. The US Dollar become 100% fiat sometime 1971 (http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/33 http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/33). Now everything is faith. Faith isn't worthless. It is right now what gives money its value. Money has real value for as long as it has such faith in reserve. Faith is another word for trust. People need to establish trust with other people - that's what makes co-operation possible. Agreements made, promises kept. Strange as it sounds, your Government is in the trust business. It makes the currency after all. And in America anyway, there are the occasional establishments that may hang a sign like: In God we Trust, all others pay cash (https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5441659/il_570xN.160397135.jpg https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5441659/il_570xN.160397135...). Kind of ironic. Anyway my two cents. :)