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What if you had a machine with which you could make a limitless supply of money — as many one, ten, or one-hundred dollar bills as you liked. Each time you made a batch, you would set a little aside so that you could buy more paper and ink to make a new batch. Upon creating your first batch you would print enough to purchase a new machine, and set it aside in a safe place, just in case your current machine broke down, and you were compelled to buy a new one. The money that you printed would look just like the money you see exchanged in a store, and no one, but you, and perhaps your closest friends, would could know from where came the money that you spent.

Or, better yet, imagine a mobile APP that you could use to buy whatever you wanted with no limit on the amount that you could spend.

In both cases you would never be short of money unless you forgot to set some aside to buy the new paper and ink, or lost your phone or mistakenly erased the APP and could not get it back.

It would be like you very wealthy, but did not own anything. Simply you could have whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it with little sacrifice. To keep the flow of paper money you would have only to make sure that you always had enough paper and ink, and that you took good care of your machine. And, for the digital stuff, you had only to make sure that you did not lose your smartphone and keep your account number and passphrase in a safe place.

Now, ask yourself what would happen, if everyone had the same machine or APP? Soon, all of the store shelves would be empty. This is because there would be no one left to fill them. Everyone who once made them would be like you sitting at home or doing other stuff, because they would no longer have to work to earn the money required to make their purchases.

You see, money has value in the market place — not just because it is desired, but also because it is scarce. Its market value disappears when there is so much of it that no one must sacrifice his time and energy to obtain it.

The original purpose of money was to make the exchange of real goods and services easier and still keep the exchange fair. A good is a thing that people want and for which they are willing to pay for; a service is an activity (a favor) that someone performs on behalf of another for paid remuneration. In the market place such payment is usually in the form of money, but it could be in the form or other goods or services. Although money today continues to make exchange easier, it is anything, but fair and causes all sorts of trouble that most never see, but nearly everyone feels. This is because those who are causing the trouble do not want to be seen. These are the thieves of the worst kind. Then too, there are those who contribute to the unfairness and the trouble and are clearly visible, but they are unafraid, because they are protected by the system that sustains them. As both benefit from the trouble and unfairness they tend to work together in a kind of quiet conspiracy against the rest of us.