The notion that the West needs China more than vice versa is laughable. China is literally the biggest importer of Western goods and resources in the world including absolute dependence on American soybeans just to feed its population.
Every night. Sometimes pleasant dreams, more often horrible nightmares. And I can't get my dreams out of my head, I still can recall dreams I had as a kid or a dream I had last week. Today my dreams were tedious, laborious, I woke up feeling really tired and relieved that I don't have to experience this shit anymore, glad for it to be over.
It's futile, as you have zero idea when you're going to die, every day could be your last man. I think what you're doing is a good way to get some sort of anxiety disorder and I'd be happy to be wrong in this case as I wouldn't wish that shit to anyone.
Currency is an energy equivalent in human society. I'd say our current ridiculously exploitable system with greedy for profit banks, rampant credits, tax havens, exchange rates manipulation, dividends and stock market micro trading leaves a lot to be desired, yet it is still incredibly convenient and relatively stable even with all the major crashes. Beats barter that's for sure.
We are focused on it because life itself is based on burning energy to sustain itself. Any plant would be happy to get more nutrients and sunlight like every animal would gorge itself to get some of that fat on their bones. It doesn't matter that it's sometimes to the detriment too - it's just wired that way in the DNA, because scarcity is way more common than abundance and if this balance crumbles then it's just a matter of time before abundance turns to even more scarcity due to overgrowth/desertification/overpopulation.
Billions of trees every year get cut down to make space for cattle pastures, now tell me how destroying entire ecosystems that have been there for potentially thousands of years is worth some particular meat.