Not to disagree with your underlying point, but I think it might be more constructive to frame the problem as a failure to internalize the costs, rather than a focus on money. Ultimately we do need a fungible way to compare solutions, and money is the simplest way to do that. We just need to figure out how to effectively internalize those externalities to the price.
Cost functions have an implied ethical system behind them. Using money is just waving your hands over it and going “well, money is objective, so we don't need a value system” – but there's still a value system there. It's like “machine learning” in that regard; there's no magic.
Money is a unit of measure. Any other unit of measure you choose will be fungible with it. Money is simply a way of unifying things we care about and translating them into the same space.
In order to compare two actions, you need to normalize their consequences to make them comparable. This is a fundamental requirement of making decisions. 'Money' is simply the unit we choose to do that in our complex society. We can call it utility points or something else, if you want, but it's still the same abstract object.
