[gundy]

Money is simply a manipulation of language backed up by force. The paper coerces sharing (whether fairly or unfairly) of resources (whether labor or physical resources like trees and oil) in a way that does not spontaneously happen without the paper.

A simple example would be without money you barter which is also a manipulation of language expressed through physical items. You need this I need that so we exchange. With money the equation becomes you need something, and you can buy it with money, here is some money, now give me what I want. The intermediary form of this was gold, because people can agree that gold is reliable. We replace that with simple language backed up by force, a dollar. A piece of paper that initially will stand in for gold to establish its value, but eventually will stand in for itself. Eventually we replace this with something like Bitcoin, no coercion simply an agreement in language justified through a market.

Quid pro quo.