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Originally Posted by kthdsn  Why is everyone so interested in accumulating such a ridiculous amount of money? Since money transferred rather than created, there is a limited amount to go around. Making that much money means you are taking that much money away from others. Why not just earn what you need and leave it at that? |
That's not entirely true. You have a good point in that simply taking money from one person and transfering it to another simply makes one poor and another rich. A game of poker with your friends is an example. Economics actually recognizes this when computing GDP. If that's how you get rich then there is an ethical question there, particularly if you accumulate more wealth than you require.
However money CAN actually be created as well! It is all the time in fact. When you create a product or perform labor of value to people then you are creating or contributing something new, and thus there is a net gain there. Money is just a very convienent form of holding value so that the value you create may be exchanged easily for other forms of value created by others (so that we aren't still trying to barter 5 oxen for six baskets of fish). If this is the path someone chooses to fortune then they are creating gain rather enriching themselves through another's loss. I won't get into exactly how the money supply works (first year macro econ does this) but suffice it to say that a country cannot arbitrarily print money to create more wealth (see what happened in Germany after WWI). There is real value behind, which can be created through positive contributions.
All this being said, my friend and I decided back in high school that 28 is a good age for your first million. Time will tell if this manifests
