The market as a system for distribution and supply/demand balancing

Following my rather rambling and unsatisfactory spiel on this subject recently, I listened in to a Zeitgeist Movement Chapter meeting on Monday Night, where similar subjects came up.

It did occur to me that money as a means of exchange works quite well, but when we weigh up that possible advantage of money against all the disadvantages, we see how important it is to devise systems that have the flexibility of money without the many disadvantages of the monetary system.

The advantages of money simply do not outweigh the fact that people are starving in this world, and dying of starvation in some cases, not for lack of food, but for lack of money to buy food, whereas in the same world people throw food away and/or eat so much food it makes them ill. Does that not badly need fixing? And the idea of people working to get money to survive even if their job is not socially constructive is bonkers too. We take a moral position on drug dealing (say) though economically it is just a job, but warmongering is socially acceptable to many.
 
We need to look as a planet at what work needs doing and how we can effectively and sustainably do it, not adhere to an arbitrary ruke that it doesn't really matter what you do as long as you work and you must work to survive.