The greatest invention in history is money.

Not the wheel.

Not the mousetrap.

Certainly not sliced bread.

Maybe you dream of what you would do if you had more money. Lots of people do. But instead, think of all the things you don't have to do because of money. Money is the reason you don't have to grow your own food or sew your own clothes. Money makes it possible for me to type for a living instead of tilling dirt to keep my family alive.

The Bible tells us that love of money is the root of all evil, but when was the last church service you attended where someone didn't pass the offering plate? Money makes it possible for that preacher in the pulpit to save your soul.

But as amazing as money is, few of us ever bother to consider how money works. In fact, it's such a perfect invention that most of us forget that it's an invention at all, or that each of us play a tiny role in its existence.

At its core, money is trust in the government.

Trust is the magic that makes money more than paper and green ink. Only because of that trust in government, do we accept the government's credit. Like Tinkerbell in "Peter Pan," money exists because we believe in it. So clap your hands, boys and girls!

When something erodes our faith in government, it's a pocketbook issue, not only because crooks are walking off with our tax dollars, but also because those criminals and con men are chipping away at the most valuable thing in the world -- the faith and credit of the United States government.

Until now, the chips were small enough and the rock big enough that corruption in our government didn't make much difference -- so little that we've begun to accept corruption as a victimless crime and a fact life, like water is wet, ice is cold, and summers in Alabama are hot and humid.

But it's not. Corruption is an existential threat. Look around the world. When governments collapse or when nations fail -- almost always, corruption is the fatal pathogen. Corruption is a greater threat to our nation than Russians, illegal immigrants or petty criminals on our streets.

If I'm going to keep typing for a living and you are going to keep doing whatever it is that you do, we must have trust in our government. Not a blind faith -- that's ridiculous. No, we must have a government that is deserving of our trust.

But what scares me, when I look around, is how untrustworthy our government has become.

In Washington, we have a president teasing and testing whether he can fire the officials in charge of investigating his affairs. Not since Nixon argued a president isn't capable of breaking the law has someone so high in our government threatened to burn the fabric of our nation.

In Birmingham, we have a United States Attorney, Jay Town, who, despite substantial evidence to the contrary, has said a scheme to protect polluters from the EPA was the work of just four men and that there's nothing else to see here, folks.

In Montgomery, we have an Alabama Attorney General, Steve Marshall, appointed by Robert Bentley, whose campaign blunders have undermined his office's investigation of State House corruption and who gave his blessing to a bill in the Legislature that would weaken Alabama's ethics law.

In the pipeline of our state judicial system, we have a former Alabama House speaker, Mike Hubbard, who, despite have been convicted on ethics charges nearly two years ago, is still walking around free, almost like the elected appellate judges are stalling until after the election for some reason.

And in the Legislature, we have a growing consensus among lawmakers that the ethics reforms of 2010 went too far. They are biding their time -- the months left until this year's elections are over -- to break those reforms down and bury them under Goat Hill.

For our governments to survive, and for our nation to outlast the living, we must hold our public officials accountable, no matter their political persuasion, no matter their strength of personality, no matter their stubborn persistence.

The folks like Matt Hart, the head of Alabama's special prosecutions division, and the folks like Robert Mueller, combing through corruption in Washington -- we need more of them, not fewer. They need greater latitude and discretion, not less.

But most of all, they need our support. We must make it clear to our elected officials that, if they touch them, or if they sit idly by while others undermine those watchdogs, come the next election, we will sweep those public officials out of office.

We must make it clear to our elected officials, before anything else -- before tax cuts or a border wall, before healthcare or gun control -- we must have a government we can trust.

Let them hear you.

Make your voice heard now. For a higher purpose and common cause if that's your thing, but if it's not, then for good old American greed.

Demand they give you your money's worth.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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Bonus: Want to learn more about the history of paper money? This YouTube series from Extra Credits follows the development of money from sea shells to the bills in your pocket.