Economics?

I am finding economics to make little or no sense at all! I spent yesterday afternoon watching (really just listening) to a three-part video on the Federal Reserve called "The History of the Federal Reserve." Yes, I spent nearly four hours listening to this, but it was very interesting! By the name of it, I assumed it was governmentally owned and controlled, but it is actually owned by a few very rich and influential people! This and the book Biblical Economics by R.C. Sproul, Jr., explains that we have a form of money that is nothing! How much is that $100 really worth when you take away its buying power? It ends up just being a worthless piece of paper! I thought Mr. Sproul illustrated this well:

If Rip Van Winkle had gone to sleep in 1962 with a fistful of dollars, he would have held in his hands a promise of an exchange for silver. In 1962 the U.S. dollar could be redeemed at anytime for silver. If Rip woke up today and headed to his bank with his old and wrinkled dollars, he would receive only a puzzled look when he asked for silver in exchange. Today our money bears the promise of nothing. Paper money is no longer a certificate of anything because it has no hard value behind it. Rip would now have to accept the payment of his debt in paper dollars.

Okay. So, we are buying groceries with worthless wads of paper? We are trying to budget our "money" so as to be out of the red at the end of the month? We are buying with and selling for a green piece of paper that literally has no intrinsic value. This does not make much sense to me. Why can't we go back to the old method of barter where the exchange was for the good of everybody involved? Alright, Mr. Sproul explains that too:

Although barter was a great breakthrough in the production of wealth, its power and scope were limited. One had to find someone who not only wanted what the first had, but also had what the first person wanted. The hunter grew tired of trading for spears. Sometimes barter could be arranged through three parties: The skinmaker wanted meat, the hunter wanted a spear, and the spearmaker wanted a skin. The hunter couldtrade his meat for a skin, then trade his skin for a spear. Everyone was happy, but the transaction took a great deal of time and energy.

Besides, barter neared its limits in the three-way deal, since it was almost impossible to come up with four or more producers with compatible interests and the time or desire to arrange such a complicated deal.

So barter may not be the most practical method of exchange, but is a worthless monetary system in the hands of a few rich folks any good either? or a monetary system in the hands of the government for that matter! What about gold and other precious metals? Do they have any true value? If we have another Great Depression or one even worse then gold and silver would not be of any worth. The most valuable things would be food, water, and a roof over your head. Gold, silver, and precious jewels have no value to the cold and hungry. How is it then, that we as humans place such value on truly worthless items? I don't understand it, and I probably need to stop thinking about it or I will only get more muddled!

I appologise if my thoughts are unorganized. I think they probably are, but I have no desire to go back over and fix them at this moment.