To state that the system "works exactly as intended" is not accurate. It works as the capitalist overlords of the universe want it to work, but not as our founding fathers, as evidenced by our founding documents, intended.

Article 1: Section 8 outlines the responsibilities of the various segments of our federal government. It gave the power to tax and the power to create the nation's currency to Congress, not to banks or corporations. It makes no mention of gold standards, balanced budgets, or anything beyond "the common welfare". It made it possible for our currency-issuing government to "afford" anything that is for sale that can be purchased with the dollars it creates at will.

You have scoffed at this as not relevant to our problems in the past, but I assure you that it is more than relevant. It is essential that the average voter becomes aware of how our government and the economy are funded, or we can simply go down with the ship of fools and hope the next civilization to rise from the muck can manage better than we did. We will have deserved any suffering that comes with our demise for our stupidity and inability to see the very simple truth right in front of us in nothing more complex than a spreadsheet.