[FRIAM] What is Wealth for?

[uǝlƃ ↙↙↙]

All of them together. It's quite normal with English words to come with a little ambiguity. But, for instance, the phrase "wealth of happiness" (AH3.b & MW2) is parsable just as it is. We don't need to redefine "wealth" to understand the phrase. And when you're talking about Bill Gates and you use "wealth", you're talking about accumulated economically tradeable assets (AH1.a & MW 1/3).

So, when someone asks "What is Wealth for", especially in the context of discussing people like Bezos, Jobs, or Oprah, it's fairly clear we're talking about money and assets. When talking about, say, Cantor or Nick, it would be very very odd to simply use "wealthy" without a qualifier. Wealth of mathematical ability, sure, easy to parse without redefining "wealth". The question "What is Wealth for" doesn't make that much sense using "wealth" as a qualifier for another substance.

But if you seriously wanted to do that, you could simply re-ask "What is a Wealth of Happiness for?" and it would immediately parse out as "is happiness quantifiable?" "is happiness cumulative?" Etc. And, again, we wouldn't need to redefine happiness, either. English words work pretty well already.


On 3/19/21 8:38 AM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
> Which of the dictionary definitions do you prefer?
> 
> On Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 7:42 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I still don't see what's wrong with the dictionary definition. Is there some reason we need a different definition?
> 
>     American Heritage ---
>     wealth (wĕlth) n.
>     1.a. An abundance of valuable material possessions or resources; riches: gave his wealth away to charity.
>     b. The state of being rich; affluence: a community of great wealth.
>     2. Goods and resources having value in terms of exchange or use: the agricultural wealth of the region.
>     3. A great amount; a profusion: a wealth of advice.
> 
> 
>     Merriam-Webster ---
>     wealth noun \ ˈwelth also ˈweltth \
>     1 : abundance of valuable material possessions or resources
>     2 : abundant supply : profusion
>     3a : all property that has a money value or an exchangeable value
>     b : all material objects that have economic utility especially : the stock of useful goods having economic value in existence at any one time national wealth
>     4 obsolete : weal, welfare

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