It can be proven mathematically that people, and countries, that have integrity, buy and sell honestly, and partner with others, earn way more money in the long run than those who compete, fight, cheat, and steal.
There are a few companies, and countries, who have a reputation for being straight-shooters with integrity. Some of these include: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway; Amazon; Japan, during the 80's; and Swiss banks.
Amazon will take returns if the product doesn't work. Berkshire Hathaway's GEICO is famous for actually paying out on claims. And Japan's Toyota and Honda were famous for cars that simply worked, and did not break down.
All these companies became, not just wealthy, but fabulously wealthy, because of their integrity. Which generated repeat and loyal customers.
These go against Game Theory. Game Theory says you have to lie, cheat, and steal-- you have to stab your opponent in the back, first-- because he's going to stab you in the back if you don't. That life is a zero-sum game, so you must steal from others if you want to get yours. This is the math that America, and in particular the RAND corporation that helps decide America's policies, has been following since WWII.
Treasury money, that the government can spend, is created by the Federal Reserve Banks out of nothing, at the urging of the government. However, the Fed and the Treasury are two separate entities; the Treasury is purely part of the government, whereas the Fed is technically semi-private.
This was set up in 1913 (along with federal taxes, but that's another story), so that the Fed would in theory be independent. The Fed would not be controlled directly by the Government. Because you can't trust the party in power to not vote itself heaps of cash to spend. But neither would the Fed be controlled directly by the private oligarch capitalists, such as J.P.Morgan (the billionaire). That would be a bad concentration of power as well. So the Federal Reserve is semi-private, run by the bankers, and straddles both worlds.
But cash that the government creates is put into circulation through a complex shell game. Technically, the government, being the Treasury, is not allowed to create money. They are called Federal Reserve Notes after all. But the Treasury can create T-bonds out of thin air.
A T-bond is an I.O.U. note that the government is going to pay you some money, plus interest, in the future. T-bonds count as future money, except they're not dollars. They're a contract, a piece of paper, if you will. They will turn into dollars, and they can be sold or exchanged for dollars, but they are not dollars. They are national debt. Congress has to pass a law to create T-bonds, but this is rarely a problem.
selling bonds, with extra debt interest, from the Treasury to the semi-private Federal Reserve banks. So every dollar created by the government already has debt to the banks associated with it. Good animated explanation.
"Whatever can't be paid back, won't be paid back." Michael Hudson, grandmaster economist
Because debt, created spontaneously from interest, grows exponentially without limit, it's necessary to wipe it out and reset it every so often. This maintains balance, and prevents the debt from being reset manually, using torches, pitchforks, and guillotines.
Book "...and forgive them their debts" details how debt Jubilees were built into Jewish law and custom, as well as customary in many countries whenever a new king gained the throne, for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Much of this has to do with the utility of money. For a billionaire, $100,000 spent on feeding the poor is chump change, sneeze money. (Money that you sneeze into a kleenex, and then throw away, because it means that little to you.) But, to a homeless person, $100 of food means everything for the next week. So the usefulness of the money differs.
It's the same with trillionaire countries. Forgiving a couple hundred million in debt is sneeze money. But to poor countries, forgiving a couple hundred million in debt could mean the difference between war and peace for the next ten years.
You have to look at what else they would be using the money for. America is spending, what?, $6.5 Trillion in costs for Afghanistan? [Peltier].
This excellent animated video is critical for a basic understanding of how a government's money works.
This excellent animated video is highly useful for understanding how taxes actually work, and why debt is created as money is printed.
This excellent animated video is highly useful for understanding how "currency debasement" works [also known as MMT, or Printing Money].
Rome spent too much money on endless wars. Then it cheated with its money, clipping coins and mixing in copper instead of silver or gold. The result was inflation, homelessness and poverty, and decline of the empire. Maloney shows, in an easy-to-understand manner, how modern countries such as the USA are on quite the same path, and what happens next.