Many economists trained in Modern Money see money as a debt the issuing government owes the holder as a tax credit. That money is denominated in “dollars” which is the same denomination the government pays its obligations in and settles future contracts with. It is a unit of measure to the government, such as an inch is a unit of measure to a carpenter or seamstress. It simply gives a common measure to transactions and the government can never run out of dollars any more than a carpenter can run out of inches. Both can run out of resources being measured, but never the unit of measure itself.
It is only when a government spends its tax credits in excess of what it demands back in taxation that the private sector can use them to denominate trade and provide a measure of value that then can be stored. However, the government can never store dollars because it must destroy them when they are used to satisfy a tax obligation, or whenever they enter the government sector for any reason, such as bond proceeds. It is an automatic accounting operation to match the tax payment with the debt that created the dollars used to pay the tax. Paying the tax is, after all, the primary purpose of the dollar. -1+1=0 This is why the government can never “fund” spending with taxation or borrowing.
Congress gives the banking system a limited use of its patent on the dollar. Banks can create debt/reserves that are denominated in dollars, but that is nothing more than the bank swapping its more widely accepted IOU for the IOU of the borrower. When banks create dollar-denominated reserves to enable interbank transfers of the loan proceeds they must never exceed the principal of the debt, so paying off a debt decreases the money supply held by the system, which is a big reason why banks lobby against government spending as it reduces their value when their customers are better able to retire their debts with public money.
Your analogy of living in pods is accurate, but by degrees dependent upon how confident one is in securing their basic needs. As people gain confidence in their security they tend to venture out of their pods more and step onto the next level of Maslow’s pyramid. I have found fear a common trait in people who are always seeking more wealth, which is what drives their success but never allows them to make that step up. Money can buy happiness, but only if one can share it with others and build communities of reciprocating support. The ultimate of the successful community would be one that simply “gifts” basic needs to everyone so they are free to “gift” others with their talents and labor.
