Sound like something you've heard before?
This is a great talk. I've been a big fan of Alan Watts' talks on eastern philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. for a long time, but had never come across this talk about what money really is.
Some notable quotes from the talk:
"...our technology is impeded and prevented from feeding the world properly is the failure of one our networks. It's an information network and it's called money."
"Money is nothing but bookkeeping."
(This is why Bitcoin is superior money. It pares away all the distractions and gets down to the essential thing: an immutable record of value.)
"...with an expanding gross national product, there needs to be more and more money -- that is to say, tokens of exchange in order to circulate the amount of goods produced..."
"Money is a circulation of information and in itself has no value."
"As words are not the physical world, money is not wealth."
"...the machine works for the manufacturer and the community."
(This reminds me of what blockchains can do, and what the proliferation of automation should also do.)
"The government or the people have to be responsible for issuing to themselves sufficient credit to circulate the goods they are producing , and have to balance the measuring standard of money with the gross national product."
"...every individual should be assured of a minimum income... Because otherwise the machines can't work."
(These guys were talking about universal basic income way back when. Predicting the predicament we are in now. Soon, when machines can do most or all of the work, and people do little to none of the work, what happens to the economy? We have to either move to a moneyless system, or one where money is distributed to everyone. The only meaningful work left (if any)will be arts, entertainment, and other things that require or are enhanced by a human touch. Psychotherapy. Teaching physical skills. Massage. Cooking. What money represents could even change because of this.))