I wanted to keep this article very basic about the origins of money and I didn't plan to get into the USD. But one can see the parallels between the barter ledgers which were essentially debt ledgers and the control those centralized parties had on people. Both the USD and barter ledgers are similar in that they allow for a centralized entity to easily control people. This is why people naturally moved to Gold and Silver to get away from this control. It was only through the stealthy breakdown of the Gold standard that we find ourselves with the debt backed USD.