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Originally Posted by jaamkie  The fact that money isn't real IS THE WHOLE POINT!!! If it were a real physical thing, yes I could understand why one would complain that there's only a limited amount of "gold coins"; but since it is a representation of value to society, there is no theoretical limit on the total amount of money that can or should exist. |
The limit is the money supply. That is real. Whatever we designate as money, there is always only a finite amount of it in an economy. What you can theoretically owe (debit) or be owed (credit) is unlimited, but the money supply is definitely finite.
Interest doesn't increase the money supply.
Before the Federal Reserve and fiat money, silver and gold were money in the United States. The amount of money was directly connected to the production capacity of mines. I think it increased at something like 2% per year.
When the United States demonetized silver in 1873, it launched the whole country into a depression that lasted 5+ years.
It had nothing to do with the production capacity of the economy. The Powers that Be simply decided that silver wasn't "money" anymore.