In our African society a person who is seen to be splashing
lots and lots of money, is said to be rich or wealthy. But is this the case?
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of
things which he can afford to let alone.” Henry David Thoreau
Having lots and lots of money, and an even bigger spending habit is not wealth.
You are wealthy when you have more than you should spend. Not what you would like to spend. Even truly wealthy people need to restrain their spending, or they would stop being wealthy quite soon.
To me, you are wealthy when you can stop working, but keep spending as you are today forever.
Having lots and lots of money, and an even bigger spending habit is not wealth.
You are wealthy when you have more than you should spend. Not what you would like to spend. Even truly wealthy people need to restrain their spending, or they would stop being wealthy quite soon.
To me, you are wealthy when you can stop working, but keep spending as you are today forever.
Wealth
is anything of value. It can be:
- physical goods, like untamed land, gold, or food
- the difference between something and its improved form can also be wealth, so when you turn untamed land into a garden you create wealth, or when you turn wood into a chair, you create wealth
- information or knowledge is a lot of wealth.
- services rendered, like the services of an entertainer
- money is a form of wealth that is valuable because of its ease of exchange, fungibility, availability (not too much, not too little), durability, intrinsic value (or lack thereof), and because governments will force you to accept it as payment of debt (fiat)
- physical goods, like untamed land, gold, or food
- the difference between something and its improved form can also be wealth, so when you turn untamed land into a garden you create wealth, or when you turn wood into a chair, you create wealth
- information or knowledge is a lot of wealth.
- services rendered, like the services of an entertainer
- money is a form of wealth that is valuable because of its ease of exchange, fungibility, availability (not too much, not too little), durability, intrinsic value (or lack thereof), and because governments will force you to accept it as payment of debt (fiat)
By solving inefficiency in the market.
For example - you have a postal service that has to deliver orders from your Central HQ. You deliver them via post. It costs $10 and it takes a day.
So your business, while sending messages (orders to do something) is paying $10 for each message AND has to waste 1 day of work, because you have to wait until the message gets there.
Now, imagine someone invents a thing, that will allow to transport signals via some sort of code (i am humoring you - I am talking about Morse code code of course).
Now it only take 1 hour to transmit the message (going to the messaging center, waiting in line to get serviced) and it costs JUST $5!
Imagine how much better you can run your business now! And you save $5 per each message!
So an inefficiency has been solved in the market (well, not solved but it became twice as small in monetary terms). This will lead to more profits, and more wealth will be created.
For example - you have a postal service that has to deliver orders from your Central HQ. You deliver them via post. It costs $10 and it takes a day.
So your business, while sending messages (orders to do something) is paying $10 for each message AND has to waste 1 day of work, because you have to wait until the message gets there.
Now, imagine someone invents a thing, that will allow to transport signals via some sort of code (i am humoring you - I am talking about Morse code code of course).
Now it only take 1 hour to transmit the message (going to the messaging center, waiting in line to get serviced) and it costs JUST $5!
Imagine how much better you can run your business now! And you save $5 per each message!
So an inefficiency has been solved in the market (well, not solved but it became twice as small in monetary terms). This will lead to more profits, and more wealth will be created.
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