As I understand it, the popular perception of wealth has evolved over many centuries, but before I start we need to first define “wealth”.
“an abundance of valuable possessions or money.”
“the state of being rich; material prosperity.”
“plentiful supplies of a particular resource.”
These definitions leave the contemporary concept of wealth up for interpretation.
I believe wealth has gone through 3 different phases over the course of human history. The transitions have not been clean cut, as all concepts of wealth still remain today just in different ratios of perceived importance.
Before hard money was popular (some sources say around 700 B.C.) goods were exchanged for other goods. You can think of these goods as natural resources or specialized services. A talented shoe maker was wealthy because he could trade his services for food, shelter and whatever else was up for trade. What you physically had or what you could physically (or mentally) do made you wealthy. I’m going to call this phase physical wealth. You can’t argue with the logical that if a family has ample food in a village where food is scarce, that family should be considered wealthy.
The second phase of wealth came with the human invention of extrinsically valuable money. Its obvious that most monies are useless in physical utility. They are only valuable in the collective human imagination. Dry dollar bills might help you start a fire in the pouring rain but that’s about it. Despite this quirk, it’s clear that money is extremely powerful. With the invention of money it no longer mattered if you could farm or make shoes. A surplus of cash deemed you wealthy. You no longer needed healthy sheep or a desirable skill to render yourself wealthy. Sure these things certainly helped, but you could become wealthy from running a drill press on a Ford Motor assembly line. This is when the age of magical wealth was born. I call it magical wealth because the ability to run a simple drill press is virtually universal, yet people will give you a stack of cotton paper (dollar bills) every two weeks for your mundane task, and some how you are able to biologically provide for yourself on that regimen. Long story short, currency is magical wealth. You don’t need exceptional skills to acquire it and it is becoming increasing easy to come by.
As technology and the economy began to advance, new ways to make money and grow wealth began to emerge. You can now make 6 figures on social media and invest that money in the stock market from your smart phone. We have the ability to work 16 hour days with little to no physical effort. The growing economy makes money easier and easier to come buy. The job market continues to grow and most people with a high school education should not have a problem finding work. With the economy being so big, there are countless entities competing for your precious time. Smart phone companies want you to waste time on their apps, your employer wants as much of your time as they can get (and generally pay you as little as possible), restaurants want you to spend your evening eating and drinking at their tables and Netflix spends millions if not billions every year to persuade you to spend your free time watching their programs. There is a direct link between how much time you spend on social media and how much money they can make off you. If you can create a social media account (Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) that receives enough attention, you will make a decent living. This concept valuable time paints an interesting picture. In today’s busy world, your time is the most valuable asset you can give someone or something. This creates a new kind of wealth. I call it freedom wealth. This is not to be confused with the idea of saying my time is worth X amount per hour. If someone pays me $75 per hour they can have my time.
This is an old way of thinking. As soon as wages were created people began to think this way. What I am referring to is the ability to freely move about your day as you wish. If you have freedom wealth you forget what day of the week it is. Mondays feel like Saturdays.
Freedom wealth is the greatest form of wealth. This does not mean magical wealth and physical wealth are unimportant because to experience freedom wealth you must have a certain level of magical and physical wealth. How much of each is your personal choice. However, we all know the person who has an abundance of magical wealth but almost zero freedom wealth (these people have very little physical wealth. SUV’s and lake homes don’t increase happiness or increase life expectancy, but a bushel of apples and a healthy cow do both of those).
All three kinds of wealth are important, but most of us focus too heavily on magical wealth at the expense of freedom wealth. I do believe money can buy happiness and freedom, but if you make 500k per year and have to plan your 10 day vacations 12 months in advanced, you have very little freedom wealth.
Freedom wealth is the most satisfying wealth.
Freedom wealth is like a person who loves doing the job they are paid to do. Think writers,musicians, fisherpersons. Professional athletes have freedom wealth. People who volunteer. Good concept grandson.