wealth

Wealth is a measure of human weal, an Old English word for “well-being”. While we often equate wealth with Money, the two are not the same. Money typically means currency, e.g. dollars, while wealth refers to assets both material and immaterial.

Wealth Shared is Wealth Magnified

While money can be given, it cannot be shared. Evert dollar has but a single owner. But wealth, specifically material wealth, can be shared. The wealth I enjoy includes access to the most beautiful music, moving stories, and brilliant ideas humanity has produced all through my local public library. It includes walks through public parks and nature preserves. These are wealth—they materially increase my well-being—and because I do not own them my enjoyment of them does not exclude anyone else’s enjoyment of them.

• This kind of public wealth is the central theme in economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society.
• Because public wealth requires a fixed input of resources while providing wealth to unbounded numbers of people, shifting wealth from private to public is the only way available to continue improving our quality-of-life while also reducing the resources our society consumes in order to live within Earth’s planetary boundaries.