I have always found economics to be a factor not a fact. Most often, I believe it to be problematic in a number of contexts because it is a distorted perception of how people interact with one another and their environment - and it is therefore unsustainable.
Initially, economics arose as a communal human construct to facilitate other intentions, basically the acquisition of goods and services for sustenance. However, over time, money and finance have been empowered with a momentum all their own, and to such a degree that they are perceived and exemplified as how things are - that money is Essential. Alan Watts once said that humanity exchanged Trust for economics; in my estimation, this idea rings true.
For me, economics is, as it was, a means to enable human development, to create an efficient and flexible means of living day to day. But I think it is a provisional process, and one that we are capable of shifting and overcoming. This is not to say that there is no need for the exchange of material needs or constructive relationships between people, but perhaps the currency and the nature of "a current between people" needs to be addressed.
When I consider human interaction and organization, I sometimes think of it without money, and I find myself often considering what is the Essential Currency between people.
At present, I am contemplating the following as forms of Essential Currency:
Inner Calm - invoked regardless of external or internal stressors
Honesty - with oneself and others
Vision - of your life in relationship to All
Solitude - the enabling of silence and reflection
What I feel is an added virtue of these forms of currency is that they are equally individual and communal; and unlike the current economics, they strike me as being sustainable.