The Meaning of Wealth

Abstract

What is wealth? Most of us associate wealth with money, our savings, our investments, our homes or other forms of "financial capital." But did you know that the word wealth comes from the Old English words "weal" (well-being) and "th" (condition) which taken together means "the condition of well-being"? Did you also know that the word "economic" comes from the Greek oikonomia meaning "the management of the household." When have you heard a report from economists or business analysts talk about conditions of household living and management? Instead we have become immune to strong language like the word "mortgage" which literally means in French "a pledge unto death" or what I call "a grip of death!" How we have twisted the meaning of words. Did you know that the father of accounting Lucca Paciolli, a 16 th century Fransiscan monk and mathematician, never defined the word "wealth" nor did he provide a definition of "profit." To this day accountants have no clear definition of either word. If real wealth is not just about financial possessions and if accountants have no real understanding of how to either define or measure or account for "genuine" wealth then we have a wonderful opportunity to both redefine and rediscover our real or genuine wealth. With that opportunity to redefine "wealth" I have developed what I call "genuine wealth" assessment and management system. "Genuine" means "having the qualities or value claimed" authentic. Genuine wealth then are, as Robert Kennedy noted, the things that make life worthwhile. Most of us could define these things in a few minutes. "The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulance to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads.