Quote from: kjj on December 06, 2013, 04:34:07 AM

Now money, on the other hand... Money is an abstraction, a placeholder. Without money, we barter, my goods or services for yours. With money, we still barter, but we do it in half transactions. I give you my goods or services, but I don't want what you have to sell, so you give me an IOU, money. Later, I complete that trade by redeeming my IOU for something that I do want. Because money is an abstraction, in the aggregate, holding money is akin to having provided goods or services, to the world. The money that you hold represents capital that the world owes you, but can use until you call for it.

Thank you for that. I never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense, and fits nicely with the point that wealthy people, who aren't thieves, are only wealthy because they gave something that the people of the world wanted or needed.