We have sons and daughters we love as only parents can love. Most of us live in comfortable houses, eat wonderful foods and drink astonishing beverages. Our clothes are fine, clean and serviceable. We have magnificent gardens. All of this depends on money.
Then one day an angel appeared...
Hold on! There ain't no angels here. Heck, we don't need no stinkin' angels. We've been doing just fine trying to change everything into money all on our own.
Trouble was, Midas' belief in gold, his love of gold, had no reference to gold's inherent capacities and functions. Market value was irrelevant. Gold was structurally incapable of meeting Midas' needs.
What about us? Money is neither a good nor a service. It has zero nutritional value. It is not particularly pretty. It renders neither warmth nor love. It may give access to life's necessities but it is not, itself, among them. Face it, money is not even inherently useful; it is simply symbolic access or catalyst to the useful.
We are not talking wealth. This is not about a capacity to grow, thrive, distribute or share. Neither is it about knowledge, religious injunction or neighborliness. This is about money. At that, it is about a particular kind of money, namely the dominant trading currencies we call "dollars," "euros," "yen," etc. This is the money that is everywhere, "the water in which we swim."
Historically, money served three essential functions:
As a medium of exchange for goods and services.
As a storehouse of value.
As an accounting mechanism.
Functionally, this is it. Other issues spring from these.