I've been enjoying inflation coverage in this regard, roughly: "it turns out that inflation is caused by people believing there will be inflation significantly

I've been enjoying inflation coverage in this regard, roughly: "it turns out that inflation is caused by people believing there will be inflation significantly more than originally expected." I'll still take secularism as an organizing belief principle over religion, though. Money is a nice mass hallucination insomuch as it is flexible to changing needs/priorities. Like more traditional religions, it also allows power to shift fluidly as social dynamics change. Any power structure will be susceptible to capture, but power structures built on belief are usefully fragile. China's organic social credit system is an interesting experiment in this regard. It highlights how America in contrast lost an accounting/social enforcement of "good behavior" (with no replacement) when it lost religion. Instead, everyone is left reliant on their "legacy systems," the individual values of their families/upbringing, without a more widely accepted accountability for doing "good deeds."