Business is not an Ayn Rand melodrama, the ownership class does nothing except manipulate the flow of money. All the ideas, inventions, organizing and information processing is done by salaried employees. The people and institutions that buy and sell often know nothing about the technical details of the industrial processes they control. In fact, they often have total contempt for them and the people who understand them. They leave that drudge work to their employees.

Yes, maybe they wear suits and ties, have corner offices and leggy secretaries, and have fancy titles. but they’re just worker bees like me and thee. These corporate drones may THINK of themselves as Corporals of Industry, innovators, creative generalists, awntrapranewers. That’s how they are taught to think of themselves when they’re getting their MBAs. They’ve been conned into thinking of themselves that way. It been part of the process of co-opting them. But if they fail to produce, they just get sacked like everybody else. The people who own airlines rarely have pilot’s licenses. And they never fly Coach.

Now I will concede, those who manipulate capital are often very talented, clever, creative, bold, even courageous. But they are also ruthless, and fallible. They’re not in business to provide something of value to anyone except themselves. If they can make a profit by dismantling a well-run and profitable company that sells a useful service or product, they will do so in a heartbeat. And when they fuck up, they often drag whole industries and nations down with them.

Currency.

Your payment was wired. So, electrons. An idea. Information.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going all Austrian School here, because gold and silver are simply ideas as well, because really, what is their value except for an agreement? Which changes daily. No. Wait, it changes by the minute.

My investments in companies have only meaning. It’s not a real thing. My shares are held by a company. I have no physical representation of that except the statement from my broker. Well, I do have a couple of certificates, relics of an age long past, pretty script and curly cues, but still, just an idea, a contract, an agreement, that in a pinch, might as well line a bird cage.