It seems like a fundamental error to believe that money itself has value, but many people make this error all the time, as you just have. Just because cash exi

It seems like a fundamental error to believe that money itself has value, but many people make this error all the time, as you just have. Just because cash exists somewhere as numbers in a system, it doesn't mean those numbers can jump out of the system and suddenly manifest as young, capable humans who can help retires. Plus, as others have pointed out, 250 billion it isn't even a drop in the bucket. If there is 2 trillion dollars of profit held as cash by companies, that doesn't mean they are holding back 2 trillion dollars worth of production. It means they're holding a claim on the purchasing power of 2 trillion dollars VS the total of all worldwide cash value, say 2% as an example. If the 2 trillion is taken out of the bank and spent, say on social services, it just dilutes the current purchasing power of the remaining cash value. It does not create 2 trillion dollars worth of value from nowhere. I return to my opening claim, that money itself doesn't have value. If anything, money could be described as, "A claim on a certain percentage of the worlds output at any given moment, limited by locale." That percentage claim is wildly unstable and changes as money is created/destroyed.