The Kings of old where gods and in that capacity they exercised powers beyond those of mere accountants. Entrance into an after life was measured in part by contributions made in this life. The same principle of placating the unknown exist today,we call it the government. The arbitrary whims of government officials require some sacrifice however inaccurate the accounting maybe they must be satisfied or gamed in order to conduct a normal life. The unknown god and the unknown long arm of the law serve the same purpose fear. We cannot bank on love, or friendship, but we can created fear if we sit in the drivers seat and other do not. So by driving the poor mass of users into some kind of fear mode power is exploited. In a good governance system the value need not be enforced it is apparent to all. Once the values become questionable the surest means of correcting the misaligned user group is to stampede the herd into a frenzy. The now polarized herd will respond to fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Once the FUD recipe has been completed going in and selling an abatement to fear is easy. If you worship the gods properly the world will not come apart at the seams. So if the gods require two loaves of bread, them two it is, that is until someone decides to short change the loaf and keep the difference for themselves. As this short changing of the loaf happens and the world remains whole confidence wains and a situation ripe for a new crop of fear emerges. Lots of excess bread around and poorly fed gods, tends to spur the economic free market as it slides from outside controls to seek its own level. A brave new world of gods and usurpers emerges one replacing the other. The names change from loaf of bread to best search engine, to be replaced by advertising dollars and one day to brain frequencies. An ever changing array of values seeks to be converted to another and create an arbitrage, whereby the new innovative value looks to exploit the older value. Dollars for land, which is the real value, land for guns or weapons, food for drugs, and on and on goes the story. As long as it can be counted it has a value which is purely notional. All the notions are derived from the need to have and to hold, influence and sustain the power we seek from others by artifice hopefully one with little or no green house gases.