To begin with, markets are imperfect beings because perfect competition is just a theoretical concept as in practice there are always lots of impediments to new entrants, for not speaking about the existence of monopolies, duopolies, etc.
"Damning report finds banking industry an 'oligopoly' that exploits its customers. Productivity Commission says banking system so concentrated it can boost profits without repercussions" a fact which is not surprising\g sense: , "Concentration of Capital is a process of consolidation of individual capital accumulations through capitalization of part of the surplus value12. It leads to increasing growth of the largest individual accumulations of capital within the totality of social capital1. Concentration and centralization of capital are two capital accumulation techniques3. The concentration of capital is a direct result of the capitalist construction of legal property4."
Besides, markets are highly discriminatory beasts, because in them one dollar = one vote, leading the well off to have lots of votes and the poor very few and even in certain cases none If you have doubts then ask any one of the 122,494 people that were estimated to be experiencing homelessness on Census night in 2021.
The choice is between Mr. Market with its well-known imperfections or government Intervention in markets in order to overcome market failure, including in what refers to the distribution of basic resources (greater equality)..
And for your information, money is primarily just a widely used means of exchange whose form has evolved over the millennia – from natural objects to coins to paper to digital versions. In New Caledonia even today cigarettes are being used as money. As to gold being the real thing, just read this:
How to replace real money (gold) with real paper money.
"General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money: If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again… the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing."
