5.2.6 People

We frequently use idioms of speech, such as “the price of oil,” that imply that money is separate from the items it can be used to purchase and that there is some sort of inherent connection between the two. Yet money is only a social construct. Money exclusively flows to and comes from people, who are also its only recipients. Despite the fact that we have accounting systems that identify things like land, assets, buildings, food, machinery, etc., all of these things only have a monetary value because people were required for their discovery, processing, delivery, and celebration. More crucially, the goal of an economy and, thus, of money is people and the realization of their potential. Indeed, the economy has a significant impact on the world of non-humans. But, if we act as though someone other than us is the economy’s main priority, we are deceiving ourselves. Why do so many people experience economic failure if this is the case? If an economy served everyone, what would it look like? One change would be a change in emphasis to supporting capacity development.