that there needs to be an already existing figure on the accounting spreadsheet before a transaction can ever occur. So by your logic then, if all the dollars are "used up," according to the accounting spreadsheet then there's no more money and nothing more for us to spend right? Until we get more money from the TT&L or from bonds (and update our books accordingly) THEN we can spend again (whew that was a close one!). And if for some wild reason we don't get any more tax payments or bond holders for that day or week or month or year (and we're already at the zero line on the books) then we're at a spending standstill. Right? That's what you are arguing for when you say that accounting ledgers aren't abstract and they aren't "after the fact" no? I think you may be starting to see that accounting ledgers ARE after the fact and are not what's really IN CONTROL. Accounting ledgers don't make money or transactions. Money/transactions make accounting ledgers. You see? @Mario , I was talking to an acquaintance who is a mental health professional about paradigm shifts. He brought up some experiments that have been done with rat mazes. He said that if you put some cheese at the end of a very convoluted, difficult, physically challenging path, the rat will eventually find it. If you keep putting the cheese at the end of this path, the rat always finds it and if you keep doing