> Which makes the conceptual basis of things like economics suspect. > Dunno about the rest of the world. If you are poor, then money is the means to have the

> Which makes the conceptual basis of things like economics suspect. > Dunno about the rest of the world. If you are poor, then money is the means to have the necessary things for survival. My opinion is that materialism is something separate from money, but it is often induced by desire for more money. The only main problem to me with the way money works is that value generation != money generation. So, what I mean is that if you plant food, it doesn't mean that money necessarily exists. And hence money != labour * scarcity if there isn't a way to introduce the money in the first place. This observation is mostly for third world countries, where you have scarce things and a lot of labour, but you don't necessarily have money. The USA suddenly becomes much nicer in your world view when one realises that for the most part money = scarcity * labour does hold there. Anyway, I would say, don't worry about the USA too much. I don't think the issues you are feeling are due to economic theories, I think it's more due to social circumstances. Culture is something you can build for yourself, you don't have to worry about the rest of your fellow countrymen.