Before there can be economics there must be the rule of law that constrains the brute. As this rule of law becomes more sophisticated it begins redefining the brute and extending that definition to our trade with each other. It does this by establishing a unit of measure to define "value" and allowing time between our transactions storing the value of what we sold today until it is needed tomorrow.

What most people miss in their thinking of economics is this rule of law that organizes our trade. They began to think of "money" as a thing that is finite and not simply a yardstick for value. Consequently, our view of money and its origins have become distorted. It is, at its core, simply the denomination for our transactions with our government, driven by our need to pay taxes. Our adoption of this unit of measure as a standard for all of our commerce has enabled a vibrant economy, but its origin as an extension of law and created only by our lawmakers was long ago forgotten.

This empowers a (small minority) segment of the population that typically has no sellable skills or other contribution to justify their position in trade except for the ability to accumulate and manipulate the nature of this thing we originally devised to measure the value of "real" goods and services and to fund our government. We labeled these people as "capitalists" and have allowed them extreme influence in our daily lives and our government to the detriment of both.