Over the last 2500 years, the principal unit of exchange has been money, which was invented to make transactions easier than trading. Money is a belief system. It is a unit of the total distribution of the group. It has no intrinsic value other than the value granted by the group members. Even gold has no value, it is only scarce.
Life is valuable.
Money has become an important and highly complex major paradigm within Economics. It has also made it possible for Economics to gain control of the Society megaparadigm in recent years, since it shifts power away from war and gods. Religion and Gnosis were grafted together early in our history, but it is important to separate the actual knowledge gained through Gnosis from the social aspects of Religion. When Gnosis and Religion are separated, as they are here, Religion consists of two major paradigms, myths and rituals. Religion, intrinsically, is myth, or a living narrative.