You're still talking money.
I'm talking power. There is a lot of power to be had in scarcity, which is why the word so often appears with "managing" in front of it.
Rationing, cutting back, taxing your enemies and rewarding your friends,* closing off industries, making it impossible to live without government largesse, metering our lives. "Czars" to run everything.
That's the goal. It has been for a long time.
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*An aside: Ever wonder why a flat tax or a sales tax is shot down by our representatives whenever the idea arises? It isn't about the revenue. The tax code gives politicians enormous power to reward allies and punish enemies. Almost every line in the code represents a deal struck somewhere in our history.