"It is only reluctance to spend money (What is money for?) and lack of empathy and imagination that keep us from opening wide the doors."

Good point, Ebbie! What IS money for? Well, it was originally invented to serve people...by making trade easier. People now serve it and they seek it for its own sake. They never feel they have enough of "it", no matter how much they get. They'll do anything for "it", specially if they can get a really LARGE amount of "it". They will do utterly insane and antisocial things for a large amount of "it". That's the problem, in a nutshell. The people have become addicted to the very tool they themselves once created....much as they became addicted to the various Gods they created at one time or another.

A God is an idea. Money is also an idea. People become very attached to certain ideas, specially when those ideas become common currency.