Money affects the quality of both our individual lives and the collective society in which we live more than any other single factor, yet very few of us ever bother to seriously ask or consider what money actually is. Despite its tremendous importance, we are taught very little about its true nature either in school, the workplace, the church, the mainstream media or from the government. This silence is not only deafening, it is highly destructive in that it leaves us vulnerable and at the mercy of those who do understand how to manipulate money to their own advantage. So share what you know about money here, so that we all can learn a little bit more about the true nature of this mysterious stranger.
I'll go first with this ...all money, even government currency, is initially created as debt. This is reflected in our double-entry accounting system of assets and liabilities. As all debts bear interest, all money bears interest. In other words, all of the money in existence is rented, and someone somewhere in the marketplace is paying the interest that is required to keep it all in existence.
Only about 3% of what people use as money is actual currency, originally created by the government. The other 97% is either other paper currency (like cheques, money orders, etc.) or electronic transfers of digital credits between financial institutions.