Thanks for the great comments - I didn't even know you had been discussing earlier. The best thing to do is keep this really really simple and try not to get biased by what we have been told is or is not money, or value, or productivity, engineers, federal reserve, debt, gold, derivatives, etc,- these are distractions. We are trained to be confused so that we can't see the vulnerability of the system we are trying to replace. Don't try to power-think, you need to trust the calculus.
First - an "asset" is a very important term that should not be tossed around like some sort of emotion. An asset must be described in terms of a quantity and a quality [Asset = F(Q,q)]. So, to say that "water" is and asset, is to be confused. Is it 3 oz of water or 300 acre ft of water (Quantity)? Is it drinking water or is it process water to keep solar panels cool (Quality)? "quality does NOT mean best to worst, greater or lesser, winner or loser, etc - this is the "competition" virus that causes us to hate, fear, and fight each other. Quality is entirely dependent on the productivity of the water - drinking water does not compete with process water. Therefore an Asset, by definition is intrinsic.
Second, long before colleges and universities - all hugely centralized institutions - and engineer was someone who makes useful things for other people - the engineer increased the productivity of a person by inventing say, wheel, wedge, and pulley. That is what I mean by Engineer. Again, this is intrinsic by definition. "Ingenesist" is derived from the latin term for engineer.
Here's a mind bender "Money MUST represent productivity otherwise nobody would work (do productive stuff) in exchange for it" - dwell on that for a moment. To test this idea, every time you hear the word "money" replace that with the word "productivity" if it still makes sense, believe what you hear. If it does not, you are being lied to.
Value = productivity = data; dv/dt = rate of change of productivity with respect to time = information, d^2v/dt = knowledge, d^3v/dt = innovation, d^4v/dt = wisdom. These are the derivatives of productivity. A derivative is something whose value is derived from something else.
Next; we are trained to believe that productivity is the manufacture of tangible goods like cars, coal, and ipods. However, "motherhood" is not counted in the GDP yet is responsible for every taxpayer on earth. Benevolence, empathy, creativity, leadership, nurturing, etc., are all forms of productivity for which there is no accounting system. These are called Intangibles on a balance sheet. They don't weant you to know this because this is the source of all value.
Curiosumé is that accounting system.
It takes a little bit of untraining before we can move forward.