Money: Root of all evil or time saving device?

There's no such thing as "inherent value". Value only exists as the individual expression of subjective preference. Since value judgments vary by individual, no two individuals will the make same value judgment with regard to any given good or service.

This is extremely fortunate. It means that exchanges can be mutually beneficial. In fact, all other things being equal, consensual exchanges ONLY happen when involved parties expect to benefit. For example, if I trade you my pen for your stapler, the trade happens because I value your stapler more than my pen and because you value my pen more than your stapler.

However, if I want your stapler but you don't want my pen, I have two options:

1. Take your stapler without your consent
2. Trade my pen or my time for something else that you want more than your stapler.

Let's say you're willing to give up your stapler for a bag of apples. Let's say I know someone with apples, but they won't give the apples up for anything other than oranges. Let's say I know a guy with oranges, but he won't give them up for anything other than salt. Let's say I know a guy with salt, but he won't give it up for anything other than wheat. Luckily, I know someone who will trade wheat for my pen. I can then trade my pen for wheat, wheat for salt, salt for oranges, oranges for apples, and apples for a stapler.

This is a fairly burdensome and time consuming Legend of Zelda-esque trade sequence. A lot of people would find plunder less burdensome than such a trade sequence - extremely if they have an extremely high time preference for acquiring the stapler.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a common medium of exchange that isn't consumed in the process of exchange and which is accepted by all market actors regardless of whether or not they have a direct, practical use for it? You know... Something like gold or silver? Then I could trade my pen for some gold or silver. I could trade the gold or silver to you for your stapler, and you could then trade the gold or silver for the apples you want. Boy oh boy! Look how much time we saved! And now I don't even have a reason to steal your stapler because consensual exchange is suddenly less burdensome than plunder!

This is the function of real money: to save time and make exchange less burdensome. Gold and silver are great too because they can't be counterfeited. When money is counterfeited, the goods and services "purchased" with the counterfeited money are technically stolen. That's where currency comes in. Currency exists because money is heavy and hard to transport. Currency works like a warehouse receipt that can be redeemed for money. When these warehouse receipts are counterfeited and redeemed for money, this is theft. Likewise, the paper notes in your pocket are fiat currency that can't be redeemed for anything. The fact that they are counterfeited into existence and circulated at gunpoint as a loan at interest means that everything "purchased" by the people calling themselves "government" is actually STOLEN.

The failure to make this differentiation between money, currency and fiat currency is why leftists call for the abolition of money, which could only be accomplished through theft, and which would only make consensual exchange more burdensome than plunder, thereby causing even more theft.

Want to free the people? Free the markets. Call for complete separation of economy and state.