I has often occurred to me, when encountering road construction while travelling, that the only way to appreciate what was being done would be to view the site from the air. And so it is with human affairs. It is easy to see, particularly with respect to others, how one can become virtually obsessed with some aspect of life which is, in fact, not very important.
Reality is distorted by proximity.
Money was used in making exchanges. Our forefathers had the idea, now rather quaint, that one should, in return for something, receive something. That meant barter. Of course, direct barter is inefficient, if not impossible, in a complex society with a bewildering variety of products and needs. These forms of wealthy are desirable in themselves, and never lose their trading value.