In fact, I have a very hard time believing that, since banks suffer as much as anyone else when nobody has any money. Carry that "detriment to other economic groups" too far and the banks start losing out as well.
Money isn't the primary goal of the banking cartel. For they already have the power to create and destroy as much money as they like through their exclusive operation of the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world. Bankers have been harvesting fortunes off the interest of their created money for centuries and have so much money they don't even know what to do with it.
What they are after is control. Namely, political control. A manufactured depression may hurt their business in the short run, but if it leads to political events that favor consolidation of the monetary system under singular control, they have gained in the long run. This is why you are seeing increasing calls in the media for a world currency. The World Financial Crisis is an opportunity for them to consolidate power.
The bit about "political control" also seems dubious. The only ways I can think of for any type of bank to actually exert such control are the types of things which are illegal around the world. Responses from various governments would cost any bank that stupid a hideous amount of money.
I'm sure you already understand the role money plays in American "democracy". Think about how much influence lobbyists have over members of Congress. Think about the corruption, the favors, the unfulfilled campaign promises.
Money rules the world, and those who have the most of it make the most rules. This has been the case all throughout history.
One world government isn't very easily workable unless the central government leaves a large part of national affairs to the individual nation-states that comprise it. In short, I think individual pieces of any world government would be powerful enough to pose major problems for a totalitarian government.
You're far more optimistic than I am.
... I would rephrase that as, "why am I exchanging my labor for the money that I'm spending on food and various forms of entertainment?"
Basically, I'm not sure where you get "valueless". It certainly doesn't seem that way to me.
Because in our monetary system, money is essentially printed and loaned into existence without any backing other than government and consumer debt. There's no gold behind it or any other asset. It's simply paper, and the Federal Reserve has the power to print up as much of it as it likes.
When you go to a bank for a loan, the bank doesn't take the money out of somebody else's account. It merely loans it into existence through exponential fractional reserve banking. It
creates loan money on the spot. You sign on the dotted line and the bank writes you a check or deposits digital credit into your account. You then have to repay the loan plus interest with the exchange of your labor at a job.
Stop and think about that. You have to work and exchange your labor for money that a bank has the privilege to print into existence. On a $10,000 dollar loan at a fixed 10% interest rate, you pay the bank $1,000 (money which you had to work for) on a loan that was created out of thin air! If you fail to pay the money back, the bank takes your collateral (let's say a car).
Most people don't understand the implications of this system, but in essence, the bank has the power to manufacture money, loan it out, and then collect the interest on something that was printed up.
