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When an economy produces goods and services above and beyond the requisite, i.e., produces an abundance, it creates wealth. Ten-eleven thousand years ago, this wealth was likely food stored for winter, that rainy day, that dry season, … .Today, for some, this abundance/wealth might include assets such as fine houses, lifestyle, money, …; and things capable of producing wealth such as investments, money in abundance, education, skills, creativity, talents, energy, …; perhaps, culture.   

Wealth and capital are synonymous.  

A society or nation has wealth.In a successful society or nation, this wealth would rightly include infrastructure that is universally accessible to everyone such as universally available internet, quality universally accessible schools and universities, universally accessible healthcare, universally accessible efficient public transit systems, and universally accessible housing.  

Rightly, in any nation, 30% of the nation’s wealth should not be in the hands of 1% of its population. The bottom 50% of its population should own a lot more than 4%.

How much of a society’s wealth should be in private hands?

Unfortunately, for most of these ten-eleven thousand years, most economies have been constructed to serve special interests.Too often, these are the wealthy and/or the powerful.A Declaration of Independence from the influence of wealth on both the economy and the government is long overdue. 

• Greed and excessive wealth are traveling companions.
• Greed likely begat slavery.It certainly played a role in its persistence.
• Greed is the root!

Money and Worth

In modern, money-based economies, all forms of wealth are worth as much money as they can be sold for. In turn, money is worth as much wealth as it can buy.Therefore, in modern economies, the two are equivalent. As with other forms of wealth, money is wealth to the holder only to the extent it is abundant to that needed to purchase the requisite goods and services.

In an economy not based on buying and selling (on money) 

— in any type of economy — 

goods and services still have inherent worth.  

Given that requisite goods and services are essential to life; shouldn’t they be a birthright?

Traditionally, money is a portable, easily exchangeable, easily transformable equivalent worth given in exchange for some other thing of worth such as labor or goods.In modern societies, money is issued by governments.  — Central banks loan money to regular banks who loan it to businesses who pay it into circulation.  —  The central bank’s control of the amount of money in circulation is a powerful economic tool.   

There have long been schemes for getting money on the cheap, e.g., counterfeiting, robbery, organized crime, pet rocks, etc..Of late, we have financialism, hedge funds and cryptocurrency.

The worth of a given nation’s money is a function of that nation’s wealth with that wealth being a function of the quality of its government and the stability thereof; its natural resources; its economy and the stability thereof; the education and skill level of its workforce; etc., etc. Perhaps even of its standard of living, its culture.

The currency and other wealth of politically stable nations with good strong governments and economies are of greater worth than those of nations with weak governments, that are politically unstable, that have a weak economy, that are poorly educated, etc.. 

“About the Past,” Angry Bear, Ken Melvin

About the Past

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