Money Is the Only Bubble
The money used to acquire assets, fund lavish lifestyles, and build business empires—ultimately shaping the marketplace and its problems—was never real.
It was a construct, a fiction sustained by systems designed to benefit a few at the expense of many.
From the manipulation of legal frameworks to the invention of financial instruments, the expansion of credit, and the unchecked printing of currency, this entire process amounts to a crime against humanity.
What makes it even more tragic is that many of its architects believed their actions were morally justified simply because they were legal.
This illusion of legitimacy has allowed the system to flourish, while millions suffer consequences so distant and abstract, they’re barely recognised as harm.
Excess is only possible when a system enables it. But the existence of such a system does not make its outcomes just. Those who have gained from it are not necessarily right—only advantaged by a structure built to serve their interests.
Money Isn’t Real—and It Can’t Be Permanent If Life Is to Be Fair
Money lies at the root of nearly every problem society faces today.
The relentless pursuit of more—more wealth, more control—has become a corrosive force, infiltrating every corner of life.
So deeply embedded is this obsession that many no longer recognize how money has replaced meaning as the dominant value system.
But money is not natural. It never was. It’s a human invention—an abstraction—designed to facilitate exchange, not to define worth. And yet, it has been deliberately shaped and deployed in ways that make it appear inevitable, even sacred.
To treat money as permanent is to elevate illusion over reality. It distracts us from what truly matters: relationships, community, creativity, and the tangible richness of life.
Money is a symbol, not a substance. Mistaking it for something real is like confusing the map for the terrain—an error that leads us away from what is essential and toward a world ruled by shadows.
Redefining What Things Are Worth
Many political groups, movements, and activists advocate for wealth redistribution as a path to restoring fairness in society. But there’s a flaw in what may seem to socialists like an unshakable argument: the money we use today is only worth what people believe it to be.
The deeper issue lies in how we assign monetary value to everything outside ourselves—objects, experiences, even property.
These values are rarely based solely on the intrinsic worth of the item. Instead, they’re shaped by layers of influence: creators, suppliers, marketers, and increasingly, intermediaries who add nothing of substance but inflate the price through financial manipulation.
This simplification—that everything has a financial value—makes it easy for anyone involved in a transaction to feel they’ve suffered a loss simply by paying too much or receiving too little.
Our relationship with money encourages a constant craving for more: more income, more for what we sell, more for the work we do. More becomes a measure of superiority.
Somewhere along the way, the line between reality and illusion blurred. We moved beyond what we need into what we want and were actively encouraged to do so by a system that insists it’s not just acceptable—but admirable—to want more.
Money has become the default value system, replacing ethical and moral principles. Even laws—once meant to reflect justice—are now shaped to serve the interests of lawmakers and their benefactors and are deemed moral simply because they are legal. These laws underpin the financial mechanisms that justify explosive inflation and guarantee profit, even when the cost to consumers exceeds what they can reasonably afford.
The truth that’s long been overlooked is this: money has no inherent value. Its worth exists only in relation to what it can be exchanged for. The things we truly need have been repurposed—not as tools for living, but as instruments for generating profit.
To build a fair and equal society, we must reject the illusion that our current relationship with money is real or necessary. We must erase the financial values imposed on every tangible thing and release ourselves from the grip money holds over our lives.
Adam Tugwell 
8 thoughts on “Money IS The Greatest Crime of Our Time”