According to some prehistorians, who necessarily make stuff up, economies began with barter. People traded value for value. It was sort of a mirror of the physical world, as seen in the laws of constant proportions and conservation of energy and momentum. It also extended the average useful life of relationships by not short-circuiting goodwill. As folks grew weary of carrying cattle around in their pockets, they substituted coins and credit. To economists of the day, gifts, like big wooden horses, were considered suspect because it was assumed the giver would indeed get something in return. Better was the devil one knew.
Today, however, we embrace psychokinesis in our cosmologies. Free money spontaneously generates in the springs of the federal government and flows freely to states so they can give it to local communities.
