The accomplishments of the arts and sciences have been exclusively in the making of things. The consequent facility in production has not had a coordinate development in distribution—in the swapping of things.

Swapping began by direct action and evolved into the indirect method through the use of money, an instrumentality which has ever been shrouded in mystery. With a complete lack of science in the art of swapping, it is no wonder that we have suffered so many social ills; it is more a wonder that we have progressed so far as we have.

Life depends upon the ability to swap. He who has nothing to swap, has no social security. But he who has something to swap should have social security, and he can have it—if the monetary instrument of indirect swapping is at his command.

The more the arts and sciences develop facility of production through the specialization of labor, the more important indirect swapping becomes, and hence the greater the need for money, the instrumentality thereof.

Intercourse among friends is on a direct swapping basis without the mediation of money, and this zone widens as the base of indirect swapping, by means of money, widens. Thus our culture depends upon our ability to expand our indirect swapping by means of money. A society that has few indirect swaps has few direct swaps or amenities. The mastery of money is therefore a cultural accomplishment. The more we command money, the less mercenary we become, for the greater the facility of money in our basic swaps, the greater is our freedom from the use of money in our direct, or social, swaps. This is because the facility of basic swaps so increases our wealth that, in our social relationships, value accounting is submerged in the greater value of free and generous fellowship and indulgences. Only a society that is money wise at its base can enjoy priceless social interchanges at the top.