Yeah, it doesn't sound quite right yet to me either. There's no overt mustache-twirling villainy going on here. Its more like a emergent artifact of the system.

Its just interesting to observe a depressed area where everyone is in want, but no one has a "job" to do. The baker can't deliver bread because his truck is broken and then mechanic has no bread so he can't work on trucks. Why? Because neither of them has any "money". Therein is the problem.