How earthlings think about money is strangely consistent around the world. Looking at renting an apartment in an Italian city on the Adriatic, the same system that measures market values in Decatur, Ga., is in effect there too, or in Korea or Uganda.

We don’t know what will be the ultimate effect of Trump’s brutal tariffs, and of the reaction of our trading partners. But we know it’s a tax increase on Americans. Not just a tax increase, but the most regressive kind – a sales tax on consumer goods. Republicans in Congress can’t be honest about their wanting more tax revenue, but this is golden – the tariff sales tax is less painful, proportionally, the richer you are, and they can remain silent and let Trump do it for them.

No matter how much tariffs hurt, or who gets hurt the most from Trump’s 19^th century mercantilism, the measurement is universally consistent. Adam Smith, of the Scottish Enlightenment, figured it out a century before that – capitalism, regulated for public safety and each nation’s fair participation, is inherently global, and basically a good thing.

Market values are a matter of simple economic math. Our realtor does some research and tells us our condo (at least as of last week) will probably fetch $2,500 a month. Meanwhile, a small but lovely second-floor apartment in Fano, Italy (Centro Storico) can be rented at 900 euros (for now). Convert that to US $ through Wise Rate Alerts, and it’s $1,056.42 (the dollar was weakening against the Euro with Trump 2.0, but everything’s in flux now). Plus the conversion fee, which we could minimize by opening an Italian bank account.

All over the world, everybody agrees on this measure. It’s nothing but a symbol, a myth, a story, like a religion. Like “God,” you could say it’s empty, except for the faith and credit that everybody gives it (unless you’re like St. Francis). The physical thing itself is nothing – paper currency or, more likely, mere digital information on a bank’s server. And yet it is the one “religion” that the entire world believes in, because of our “faith” in it.

Our morals (or our sin of fraud and theft), social status, our generosity or selfishness, all these things are consistently measured the world over by this Deity, money. Even political power can be bought, now that unlimited contributions are declared protected “speech.”

The richest man in the world, apparently, has bought the election of a U.S. Presidency and, without making his case to voters, is shutting down the entire U.S. foreign aid operation. To save money, he says. The Courts are saying hold on just minute. Soon, we’ll see the full power of this empty god.