Just to analyze (and throw one of MY wrenches ... /8^) ... )
do YOU trade your labor (think hours of your life, NEVER to be reclaimed ) for currency ?
Not anymore. Not in over four years. Sometimes "currency" is the result of some of my labors of love (i.e., tinkering).
We tend to forget that "currency" is really only a medium of exchange. Hence many spend their entire lives trying acquire it and then looking for something they think will give them some measure of please to spend it on.
Governments and the elite have learned to control us by controlling the medium of exchange. Its not nearly as messy as outright slavery, though we are slaves to the system now. What's needed is for the medium of exchange to rightfully be controlled by the people, IMO.
But we shouldn't ever put love of money ahead of our love for life...