I think the key insight is to realize that money is just a distraction, it's numbers in some computers. At the end of the day we have three kind of real resourc

I think the key insight is to realize that money is just a distraction, it's numbers in some computers. At the end of the day we have three kind of real resources: matter (raw materials and energy), labor and knowledge. Money is about how those resources are used. Whoever has the money can mobilize those resources for any goal of its choosing. The value can only be measure in function of what those goals are. It's obvious that you can't choose turn a $1B yacht in insulin, but you could redirect the economy to produce more insulin and less yachts (or the other way around). The believers in Laissez-faire, will tell you that the system, by itself, will produce the exact quantity of insulin and yacht necessaries. In other words, they think that the optimization function and the utility function are all implemented in the power of markets. In the other side of the spectrum (a totally centralize economy), they will tell you that the optimization function and the utility function can be wrote by hand. Personally, I think that the optimization function have to be learned by the markets, and the goal function have to be handcrafted. The economy is just a machine that really doesn't care, it will create yachts or insulin or whatever.