At one point they’re a consumer in the goods market, the next an employee in the job market, and the next an investor in the financial market. In each of these spaces they’re but one tiny node, and rather than recognizing the interlocking nature of the markets they pass through, they experience themselves like a blindfolded person moving around an elephant, imagining each part they touch to be a unique object.
They’re trying to imply that the €10 billion is like a gas lost to space, but those monetary costs will appear on a bunch of income statements somewhere else as income earned from providing a service, and will turn up in GDP figures.
Of course there’s a real resource cost to producing jeans, and to maintaining the cash system, but there’s also a real resource cost to maintaining an army, a logistics system, or stairs in a skyscraper.
Improve.