An Apology for Money

TL;DR

This paper discusses the dual nature of money as both beneficial and destructive, emphasizing its creation, value, and the risks of corruption and misuse in fiat systems, highlighting the inevitability of its ambivalent role.

Contribution

It provides a philosophical and analytical review of money's benefits, risks, and systemic issues, emphasizing the inevitability of its corruption and the importance of understanding its dual role.

Findings

Money creation is inherently prone to corruption over time.

Fiat money relies on collective belief and conditioning for its value.

Misuse of money creation can lead to economic instability and conflict.

Abstract

This review is about the convenience, the benefits, as well as the destructive capacities of money. It deals with various aspects of money creation, with its value, and its appropriation. All sorts of money tend to get corrupted by eventually creating too much of them. In the long run, this renders money worthless and deprives people holding it. This misuse of money creation is inevitable and should come as no surprise. Abusive money creation comes in various forms. In the present fiat money system "suspended in free thought" and sustained merely by our belief in and our conditioning to it, money is conveniently created out of "thin air" by excessive government spending and speculative credit creation. Alas, any too tight money supply could ruin an economy by inviting all sorts of unfriendly takeovers, including wars or competition. Therefore the ambivalence of money as benefactor and destroyer should be accepted as destiny.