>> “The fruit of labor is measurable, but how?” <<
By literally measuring it. It may be board feet of lumber cut, feet of pipe trenched and laid, barrels filled with whatever, contracts reviewed, books written, but it is always measurable.
Money on the other hand is merely the method of exchange of that product. The ‘price’ of money relates only to acceleration of acquisition time for some product, tangible, abstract, or facilitative.
No, it is not always measurable. There are countless jobs which produce nothing like a cord of wood nor a barrel of crude oil. And even those that do produce tangible stuff, do you think measuring it physicallyaccomplishes anything? Pipe trenches aren’t worth so-and-so by the foot because of the nature of matter being extended in the dimension of length. It has a price because people are willing to pay for it. Or for the service of things travelling through the pipe which will be laid there, rather.
To a freezing man with no shelter a cut of wood may be priceless. To a market already saturated with wood it may be as valueless as a second meal to a man already stuffed. You could hold into it until it is worth more than zero or carry it to a town not stuffed with wood. But that’s be speculation and no better than betting on the future value of money.
“the ‘price’ of money relates only to acceleration of acquisition”
Acceleration and decceleration, both. Why the scare quotes around price. Do you honestly not think it has a price? There’s not an apparent market one now that the banking industry has been cartelized and the supply of legal tender monopolized, I admit. But there is a market price.
Why do you say “only”? That is a crucially important function, especially in a complicated economy like ours. Its frustration and manipulation is at the heart of the periodic bubbles that plague us.