How Much Should It Cost To $ave A Global Economy?

Does anything sound strange about this?

I’m definitely not an economist by any stretch of the imagination but, what exactly is the purpose of an economy?

My understanding is that it’s sort of like an engine that generates and circulates money for everyone, so it seems the entire notion of “spending money to preserve the ability to make money” seems counter intuitive and contradictory. Are we spending all the money the economy has generated for the last ump-teen years only to have to now save it? Will we at least break-even at the end of all this? Or will we be further in the hole?

Or, is this whole system of money just a creation of thought? And is it that, as a creation of thought, is it then subject to all the characteristics, qualities, and limitations of thought?