Is the subject of, “What is wealth?” A matter of fact, or a matter of prospective? In a recent newsletter called, “DO WE KNOW WHAT CAUSES INFLATION,” I submitted that wealth equals goods, and services. There are some that would reject this concept, believing that some inanimate object “IS” wealth. My prospective maintains that NO inanimate object can have worth, unless it is used to produce a marketable item, ie. Goods, or services.
Let’s consider for a moment that for many thousands of years the ground in Louisiana probably contained crude oil. The properties of that oil was essentially the same as it is today. When my ancestors migrated to the bayou region of Louisiana, that oil was plentiful, yet few of those cajuns were wealthy. Why not? Many of them found their wealth in the alligators, crawfish, catfish, ducks, and other game of the region. They built their personal empires on these resources, those that could be used to produce food, clothing, and other essentials. The more of these natural resources that could be harvested, the wealthier any particular citizen of this region could be.
Other citizens of the region amassed huge fortunes farming sugarcane, or cotton on plantations. Was the sugarcane, or cotton the wealth, or was it merely a resource that could be used to produce wealth?
The oil that abounded in this region was utterly useless until someone discovered how it might be used to produce fuel, plastic, and other marketable items.
One man sees the natural resources, such as gold, silver, oil, uranium, copper, etc. as the wealth of a particular region, but is this the whole story? If no one uses their efforts, and ingenuity to convert these natural resources into marketable goods, or to provide marketable services, will the region be wealthy?
I maintain, as I did in the afore mentioned essay, that it is the goods, and services, made possible by the efforts people to utilize natural resources to serve the needs of themselves, or others that is wealth.
Natural resources are an important ingredient of wealth. So is the imagination, and gumption of people to properly utilize those resources. These ingredients, (among others,) combine to produce marketable goods, and services. Therefore I maintain that goods, and services “ARE WEALTH”. If no-one needs, or wants a particular natural resource, it is worthless. It is the ability to convert resources into marketable items that has worth, and is thereby wealth. Currency is only a medium with which to exchange that wealth.
Just a thought,
God bless you, Dave