What if our commoditized, financialized meaning of wealth shows a staggering poverty of culture, spirit, knowledge, practicality and good sense?
The traditional meaning of wealth is entirely monetary: ownership of cash and assets. The assumption is that money can buy anything the owner desires: power, gain access to, land, shelter, energy, transportation and if not love, then a facsimile of caring.
The flaw in this reductionist definition is obvious: not everything of worth can be purchased at any rate– for instance, health, once lost, can not be purchased for $1 million, $10 million or perhaps $100 million. A facsimile of relationship can be acquired (i.e. buddies happy to trade phony friendliness for money), however true friendship can not be bought at any rate: its very nature renders friendship a non-commodity.
This discusses the abundance of wealthy people who are miserable, lonesome and counterfeit to the core. Only commoditized goods and services can be bought with cash or properties.
Given the limitations of the conventional model of wealth, the question naturally occurs: what if we defined wealth more by what can not be bought rather than by what can be bought? Another way of making the difference is to ask: what has been commoditized/globalized such that any person with money anywhere on earth can purchase it? What can not be commoditized due to the fact that it is inherently inaccessible to commodification?
We can begin our inquiry with a series of questions:
1. What would be the impact on a person’s health if modern-day medicine/pharmaceuticals were no longer available? Put another way: how reliant is one’s “good health” on commoditized interventions? How independent is an individual’s health/vitality from commoditized medication?
Health that is adequately dynamic that it has no need for commoditized medicine can not be purchased, and therefore it is a type of intrinsic (non-commodity) wealth.
2. Can a shipwrecked specific swim two miles through open ocean from a doomed ship to safety? Cash has no value if there is no help that can be purchased; the person’s only wealth in this situation (presuming they know how to swim) is their core physical strength and endurance– types of wealth that can not be substituted with money.
3. If Cicero was proper and “The guy who has a garden and a library has whatever,” then let’s ask not how extensive one’s library might be in regards to the number of volumes, but ask the number of the books (or ebooks) have been read, soaked up and taken pleasure in by the owner?
In other words, it’s not the ownership of a library which creates non-commoditized wealth but the joy, knowledge and satisfaction derived from the reading of the books which specifies wealth.
4. The same analysis can likewise be used to a garden/orchard: what if we ask not how large the garden/orchard remains in terms of square meters, however how expansive is the owner’s involvement in the care of the garden/orchard, just how much pleasure is developed by the work and gather, and how much of the bounty is shown others?
5. How many friendships does an individual have that started in high school or earlier and are still dynamic? How many pals does one have who can be entrusted with the deepest personal crises? The number of friends’ houses are open to you, rain or shine?
What if we defined the individual with no real friends as impoverished, regardless of their ownership of possessions and cash? Lots of people seem to have expert acquaintances they call “pals” to mask their bottomless poverty of genuine pals and relationships.
6. What if wealth were measured in personal integrity, i.e. honesty, credibility, compassion and the ability to stay responsible even as things fall apart?
This is obviously just a start: we could continue our redefinition of wealth to consist of kindness, compassion, the abilities needed to organize volunteer neighborhood work parties, and so on.
As we explore what really can not be bought or commoditized, it raises this question: what if our commoditized, financialized meaning of wealth reflects a staggering poverty of culture, spirit, knowledge, stability, warmth, kindness, relationship, functionality and common sense?
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