Economics is an evolving discipline. During my lifetime economics has transitioned from post-war Keynesianism, through the emergence of Neoliberalism in the 80’s and now stands at a new evolutionary juncture with competing theories and and beliefs. But there is one common thread that links these theories together and that is their focus on money rather than wealth.
Irrespective of theoretical foundations, all economic models concern themselves with fiscal and monetary policy. Fiscal policy focuses on the governments ability to create and distribute money, Monetarist policy focuses on the private creation and distribution of money. But money is a concept with no physical reality. Wealth, by contrast, is entirely about physical reality. Wealth surrounds us in the cities we live in, the products we use, the services we enjoy. But modern economics has little to say about the creation and distribution of wealth. Modern economics makes assumptions that wealth is an end goal, a product of the economic system, but views wealth through the abstract medium of money.