That's right, Amos! (grin) That's why it's so popular.

As long as everybody agrees to pretend that the phony money is real, the game goes on, but the money loses its value steadily. The problem is that all that easy credit created a worldwide balloon of non-existent money, and it all generated debt through interest charges, thus enlarging the already gigantic balloon of non-existent money every FURTHER...........................

and a lot of people got themselves so far into hock that they couldn't even afford to make their scheduled payments...

and their governments did the same thing...and had to raise taxes (income tax didn't exist in North America before the First World War!).....

and so many debtors defaulted that the lenders began to experience financial collapse themselves...

and finally.... POP!

The phony money balloon burst.

And there we are.

Complete greed combined with total irresponsibility has landed us in a bad spot. This, despite the fact that there are still just as many talented and capable people all over the world who can still do the same useful work...provided that the financial situation wasn't fucked by the wordwide practice of USURY.

Usury (lending money and charging interest on the loan) was once illegal in several of the world's great religions. Guess why? It's an immoral practice that allows someone to get money for doing absolutely NOTHING...for doing no real work at all. It should never have been made legal, but greed won out.