This isn't a currency issue. The processes driving this have been observed in 19-century Britain under a gold standard. For me it took looking into how firms decide what to produce, how to produce it and what to do with the profits in order to build a better picture on what's happening. This Talk at Google was a good starting point for me.

If we still had policies that forced wealth redistribution it would work fine like it used to

The ability to turn on the money hose isn't the problem. If they used the money hose on us it'd be great! The problem is they use it to redistribute wealth to the rich and powerful, while the rest of us go thirsty.