Agreed, Steve. The problem is not the money itself, because it's a very useful way of enabling the exchange of goods and services. The problem is how the privately owned banks have taken over most of the creation OF the money...in the form of debt...through fractional reserve lending...thereby enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of society, and by this means they have gradually gained control over governments and societies in the last few centuries by putting them into enormous debt TO the banks and thus controlling them. So, as you say, it isn't the money itself that's the problem, but like other good things (including your bottle of wine) it's open to abuse. The system of fractional reserve lending should never have been allowed to develop in the way it has. This was not the fault of money itself. It was an error originally made by governments in regards to how to regulate the banks, and it is by now completely out of control. The largest corporations are likewise taking control of societies, again due to various forms of de-regulation that have allowed them to....and this was accomplished by they and the banks buying off the politicians. Not the fault of money itself, but the fault of corruption in high places.