Virtually every economic policy is theory-laden, and at the root of each economic theory lies a fundamental notion of the market as either an “interdependent system of logically necessary relations” or an “aggregation of autonomous events.”
Paper money that rolls off the presses without a commodity behind it has never been accepted without government fiat. It derives its power from the guns behind it in the form of legal tender laws.
Rather than spend the day producing goods and services for “society,” countless millions of Americans instead spend the day consuming food and entertainment and enjoying leisure time.