Does the amount increase, or just change hands?
The amount changes all the time, and depends on what you define “money” as.
Almost every country (every one on the WTO) publishes monthly volumes. Here’s the one for the US if you consider that money is cash and the contents of all the bank accounts:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL
That “M1” is a standard definition, that is easy to search for any country.
If you start to add things like credit card balances and government papers that can be used in most large transaction, you arrive at the other definitions. There’s a wiki page for them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply
The M1 to M3 set is an international standard, but many countries add other definitions to their publications.
EDIT:
And of course, I didn’t tell how the amount changes.
Each kind of money changes by its own particular process, that is actually quite obvious once you think of money that way.
Cash is printed by the government, and destroyed mostly by it too (but some times by accident). It’s a form of government debit.
Bank deposits are created when banks make loans (that is, they get somebody’s money and give to another person, but still keeping the first person’s money on their account), and destroyed when the loan id paid back.
Credit card debit is created when people buy stuff on credit, and destroyed when they pay it back.
And so on.
It’s all fiat nowadays. It magically appears because of debt and shit.
If it were money from the old times, it would only increase after it was mined from the planet.
42 money, exactly
And it’s always 42. No matter what, or when, or how.
Perhaps some day, if someone understands the galactic economy well enough to explain why it’s always 42 money, we’ll be able to stop fighting and arguing with each other long enough to come together united for once. And share in the beating of that smug smart ass who thinks they know everything.
it’s kinda complicated
Money is really just a representation for resources, so if it was simple, the value of money should adjust to be equal in total to the total amount of resources on the market. However, then people go and make it complicated by buying stuff like services, money itself, lending money, and so on.
Value for things like services are also subjective, varying by the person and how desperate they are, or how loathe to sell their time and energy.
Value for resources is also highly subjective.
If I have zero water and $50, but you have 50 waters and $0, I would value one of your waters more than one of my dollars and you would value one of my dollars more than one of your waters. And so we would trade, and both be happier for it.
And, of course, there’s inflation. The value of something is a perceived thing, but the actual dollar value attached to that perceived value always tends to increase, except when an economy collapses. Inflation is caused by a government pretending things have more value than they actually do and pocketing the difference.
Unless you’re in a desert with no stores around, in which case the person with 50 waters is going to tell you to go take a hike because that dollar is useless to them but the water will keep them alive.
Money is created through debt. A dollar is a debt from the treasury. Money is net $0. Debt/Money can instantly become worthless if the possibility of fulfilling the contract is 0.
People are enslaved through debt or sword. Money is tokenized slavery tokens.
I think we’re nearing a quintillion in nominal derivatives globally.
People are enslaved through debt or sword. Money is tokenized slavery tokens.
This is… fucking stupid. The entire modern world is able to function without a central planner because money allows people to buy the things they want and need via markets. There are all sorts of arguments to make about how fair markets are, how they can be reformed, how various incentives or government programs can be implemented to combat poverty, etc. But large scale, non-monetary economies are few and far between, and there is little evidence that they provide better living conditions for their residents than monetary economies, nor that their systems are replicable in other locations and cultures.
Wealth inequality, I think most people here would agree, is a bad thing. But money is a tool, and is a good - or at worst, neutral - thing. You may as well argue that shovels are evil because sometimes innocent people get bashed over the head with them.
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