The available resources never really change much, but barter simply doesn’t allow for the economic growth nations desire, so the currency is critical to enable commerce and pay for the government that has no product to offer. With currency comes potential corruption, or guaranteed corruption depending upon one’s perspective. Money makes it possible to store the value of resources long after those resources have been used, which is the root of capitalism and profit.

Money has its roots in law, primarily used to force a tax payable only in a select currency that the issuing government can create at will to provision itself without needing a revenue stream within the productive system. To some, this makes government a competing user of the currency, but it is actually the source of the currency that enables commerce. This distinction is critical to the success of both the government and its economy, but also can be the cause of corruption if wealth is allowed to influence government.

Capital has always gained when currency can be limited by artificial constructs, such as commodity pinning and exchange rates. Keeping the money supply limited always disadvantages labor and drives it to accept conditions making it subservient to wealth. If the workers can be made competitive with each other for a limited supply of currency they will increase productivity without making demands of a larger share. One can determine the corruption in a government by the amount it falls short of producing full employment in its economy. A government that isn’t corrupted by wealth will not tolerate less than full employment, becoming the employer of last resort if necessary. A prosperous populace will have no desire for war.