How Do You Measure Wealth?

[quoteguy]

Hello Friends,

Hope all is well. Wealth means different things to different people. True wealth comes in all aspects of life. Money is not the only measure of wealth. Having good health, good relationships, peace of mind, are all attributes of being wealthy.

Here's a story that iilustrates this fact perfectly. The author is unknown. If anyone knows the author of this story, feel free to let me know. Enjoy.

One day a very rich father took his family on a trip to the country. "How come we're doing this, Dad?" one of the kids wanted to know.

"Oh," he replied, "I just want to show you how poor some people can be."

So they spent a day and a night at the farm of a very poor family. When they returned from their journey, the father asked his son, "Well, how did you enjoy that?"

The young man said, "Aw, it was super, Dad! Thanks!"

"And...what did you learn?" the father asked. And his boy answered, "I saw that we have a dog here at home...but that farmer and his family had FOUR dogs.

"We have a swimming pool that reaches to the middle of the garden; but they have a creek that doesn't even have an end.

"We have imported lamps in our garden; but they have the stars they can see every night.

"Our patio reaches to the front yard, but they have a whole horizon."

The boy stopped for a moment and looked at his shaken father. "Dad," he said, "you told me you were going to show me how poor people can be. I get it--we're really poor, aren't we?"

[Zukin]

That reminds me of this story:

Two salesman went to Africa in the 19th century to sell shoes.

The first one saw that everyone walked barefoot. He booked passage back the next day, totally despondent, muttering to himself, "I can't sell shoes in Africa, nobody wears them." :-(

The second salesman saw all these unshod people, and cabled back on the newfangled wire service "hurry, send shoes, *nobody* wears them, the market is wide open, it's HUGE..." :-)

[NotesMaeve]

I'll take the stars, the endless creek, and your cash.

[Erki]

In most indigenous cultures, wealth is "measured"(I don't think they compare and measure each other the way we do it as they don't have a sense of strict separate self - they're all one) by relationships, not money or material goods. If a wo/man has many friends and companions, does a lot of good deeds, shares her/his gifts with them, then s/he is wealthy.

Makes sense in the 21st century modern world too: you can have a lot of money and stuff, but if you're in trouble where your money can't help you, things are not very good. Or if in case of hyperinflation, all money loses its value, those people who have friends and community, fare better than the lone wolfs.

It's still possible to be a hermit and live on a mountaintop or in a cave, live off the earth, and socialize with only animals, plants, nature though. But I guess it's not very appealing to most people(for a long term solution, for limited time it could be refreshing).

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by Erki

In most indigenous cultures, wealth is "measured"(I don't think they compare and measure each other the way we do it as they don't have a sense of strict separate self - they're all one) by relationships, not money or material goods. If a wo/man has many friends and companions, does a lot of good deeds, shares her/his gifts with them, then s/he is wealthy.

That sounds very nice and egalitarian, but the fact is that this simply isn't true.

Depending upon where you are in the world, indigenous cultures measure wealth in things like livestock, land, weapons, mates and, of course, money.

While it's a nice, warm and fuzzy image to have wealth measured in things like social relationships, the simple fact is that every culture uses some medium of exchange, from bullets or bullion, cows or coins. Whomever has a greater amount of the particular medium is considered wealthy.

[Sam988]

I look at this from this point of view: What thing is the most fundamental, that if i have it i can make it easier to have all the rest? The only answer is money. So i still consider money/possessions the ultimate measurement of wealth.


The dad that took the kids to the countryside could just give up his house on the city and go to this countryside and live there if he wanted. The same couldn't apply to the (literally) poor farmer, that only had the nature(something that anybody can have).



If you have a decent amount of money in your bank account (enough to live independently), you will have everything coming easier to you (friends, girlfriends, not having the stress to worry about things like the rent and debts, and so on).




The problem is that most people tend to connect "money" with a workaholic person that has no life, but it isn't necessarily like that. So this very important distinction has to be made when we are measuring wealth.

[Uplift]

Originally Posted by cdn2wheeler

That sounds very nice and egalitarian, but the fact is that this simply isn't true.

Depending upon where you are in the world, indigenous cultures measure wealth in things like livestock, land, weapons, mates and, of course, money.

While it's a nice, warm and fuzzy image to have wealth measured in things like social relationships, the simple fact is that every culture uses some medium of exchange, from bullets or bullion, cows or coins. Whomever has a greater amount of the particular medium is considered wealthy.

Traditional Indigenous Australians based their lives on reciprocity. They didn't have money, livestock or see value in hoarding anything. They shared what they had. They felt everything was connected and that it was best to learn to fit in with nature and cycles rather than try and dominate or resist. So they had no military, armies, generals and so on. That is not to say that there weren't disputes and killings, or that everything was perfect, but they tried to work things out amongst themselves, and felt that every thought and action had far reaching effects.

[quoteguy]

Hello Friends,

I found this quote:

"There is no greater happiness than freedom from worry, and there is no greater wealth than contentment." (attributed to Lao Tsu, aka Lao Zi, legendary Chinese Taoist philosopher, supposed to have lived between 600-400BC)

So according to Lao Tsu, being in a state of contentment is the measure of true wealth.

I think contentment is a tricky word. Some would say that contentment is not good. It can imply settling for ever comes your way. If you live like this you don't ever strive for anything more out of life. You put limits on yourself.

I like to think that Tsu meant that when you are content, you are fufilled in all aspects of life. You are at balance or alignment with the Universe. When this is realized, you have achieved true wealth.

I think the measure of true success is when you have want for nothing but yet have everything.

[Uplift]

Originally Posted by quoteguy

Hello Friends,

I found this quote:

"There is no greater happiness than freedom from worry, and there is no greater wealth than contentment." (attributed to Lao Tsu, aka Lao Zi, legendary Chinese Taoist philosopher, supposed to have lived between 600-400BC)

So according to Lao Tsu, being in a state of contentment is the measure of true wealth.

I think contentment is a tricky word. Some would say that contentment is not good. It can imply settling for ever comes your way. If you live like this you don't ever strive for anything more out of life. You put limits on yourself.

I like to think that Tsu meant that when you are content, you are fufilled in all aspects of life. You are at balance or alignment with the Universe. When this is realized, you have achieved true wealth.

I think the measure of true success is when you have want for nothing but yet have everything.

Thats what the Tibetans have been telling the Chinese for ages!