[FRIAM] What is Wealth for?

Fri Mar 19 13:48:46 EDT 2021

My wealth:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AtsEEaFdWJgdjQwHA

On Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 10:34 AM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> At the risk (with the awareness of?) being pedantic:
>
> My working definition of Wealth is that it is accumulated or stored Value
> which just begs the question of "what is Value?"
>
> There are a few reasons that Fiat Currency is a common measure of Value
> and Wealth (e.g. GDP, personal Wealth/Income, etc), the most obvious (I
> think) is that it IS reductive and moderately fungible.   Money is "the
> universal solvent" which on one hand means it helps to solve or clean up
> sticky problems, but it also ultimately "dissolves everything".   And you
> "can't buy happiness" but money *does* work to leverage/relieve various
> things which contribute-to/detract-from happiness.  The kid who killed the
> Asian Massage Parlor women seemed to have hit a boundary on that one and
> took it out on them.
>
> I started the thread "what is Wealth for?" to prompt the kinds of
> discussions that have been offered up and perhaps beyond.
>
> My working definition of Value includes it being very
> Subjective/Personal/Context Specific and that it is at least a Vector,
> probably more properly a Tensor.   As a strawman (in my sense), I offer
> dimensions such as:
>
>    1. Fiat Currency with it's exchange rate among other similar
>    instruments, it's liquidity, inflation/interest rates, etc.
>    2. Data/Knowledge/Wisdom spectrum
>    3. Love, Kindness, Filial/Fealthy networks
>    4. Tools (levers) for specific tasks/goals
>    5. Raw materials
>    6. Comfort items (soft warm bed, nice view, etc.)
>    7. Basic need items (air, water, food, shelter, ...) -
>    8. Reputation
>    9. Beauty/Culture
>    10. et cetera, ad nauseum
>
> Bhutan's Gross Domestic Happiness Index is an interesting way of
> evaluating the Tensor of Life into a singular Eigenvalue.   It is most
> useful to our Western Hypercapitalism as a strong contrast to the way *we*
> collapse it all into $USD (private wealth or GDP or... ) even though we
> know money can't always buy happiness and as with our favorite whipping boy
> and his neice's book "Too Much and Not Enough" what seems like a linear or
> maybe log curve is not only fraught with inflection points, it has some
> kinks and even knots built into it.
>
> If the calculus of our "happiness tensor" includes satisficing as well as
> optimizing terms, we see something somewhat different the usual math for
> evaluating (economic) wealth/value...
>
>     "Enough is too much, and that is just right!" - antidote to "Too Much
> and Not Enough"
>
> Some of the terms in the Value Tensor refer to virtuous rather than
> vicious cycles (e.g. Love, Kindness, Generosity).   The extrema are
> interesting but not defining (Elon Musk, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Nelson
> Mandela, your favorite Street Person).
>
> mumble,
>
>  - Steve
>
>
> On 3/19/21 7:54 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote:
>
> " I still don't see what's wrong with the dictionary definition. Is there
> some reason we need a different definition?  "
>
> Maybe we want to include non-material wealth such as Merle's example of
> the formar Bhutan's happiness?
> Maybe we also want to include Nick's freedom to think as wealth?
>
> @Merle, you asked for a definition, what do you think?
>
>
>
> On Fri, 19 Mar 2021 at 15:42, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <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
>>
>>
>> On 3/18/21 9:42 PM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote:
>> > Let me try a definition of wealth:
>> >
>> > Wealth is that what makes you happy.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, 19 Mar 2021 at 06:01, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com
>> <mailto:merlelefkoff at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >
>> >     Is the definition of wealth having a lot of whatever the culture
>> values?  (I'm late meeting Nick's challenge to me.)  The former Bhutan
>> (it's changing drastically and rapidly) valued Happiness.  It's why their
>> happy people thought they were wealthy, despite being one of the world's
>> least "developed" country. (GDP is now rising with outside development of
>> its natural resources).
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> ↙↙↙ uǝlƃ
>>
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-- 
Frank Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918

Research:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2
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