“Money is transferable freedom against a limited choice of goods. It guarantees this freedom abstractly, by means of an opportunity for exchange, on a quantitatively limited basis, leaving open questions of when, with whom, for which object and under what conditions the person possessing the money will carry out the exchange.”
~ Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power
“When acquired, the money symbol expresses a certain uncertainty in the available possibilities of gain, and makes possible reduction of this complexity according to individual wishes. The decision about how this complexity will be reduced, how, when, and with whom, and for what purpose the individual spends his money has, in principle, no consequences for the social system – and that is one of the prerequisites for the institutionalization of general, individual freedom.”
ibid.
