Creating Wealth

A Biblical proverb states: “He becomes poor who deals with a slack (idle) hand; but the hand of the diligent makes rich (produces wealth).” Wealth and riches – the whole world wants it. The culture of America assigns a social status to the abundance of things which you possess. And there are some who believe that those who are wealthy should pay the bills of those who are not. They believe in a transfer of private property from the “rich” to the “poor.” I put these words in quotes because people by nature define those who are rich as people who have more than they do. And those same people defining the poor show that they have never been to a third world country. Regardless of what you believe individuals should do with regard to the giving of their property, this nation largely does not know poverty nearly as well as much of the world knows it. The poorest among us are rich by comparison. We are a rich country. But there are a few simple facts about riches and wealth that are critical for all to grasp.

Fact #1: Wealth is not money. Money is a medium of exchange. And money is a medium of exchange because everyone will accept it in exchange for goods or services. Everything has a relative value stated in the medium of exchange, or currency. It is called currency because it is widely (seemingly universally) accepted and circulated from person to person. Currency only has value because everyone agrees that it has value. If you have a million dollars while in Manhattan, that can be very useful. If you have a million dollars while in Antarctica, it is of no value because it is not what you want. You are not wealthy there. Wealth there is having very effective clothing to protect you from the extreme environment and expeditious transportation to get you out of Antarctica and back to warmer latitudes. Again, wealth is not money. Wealth is having what you need and what you want and plenty of it. Money simply lends itself toward the exchange of currency for the goods and services you need and want. If you need or want them, they are of value to you.

Fact # 2: Wealth is not a zero-sum game; wealth is created. There is not a fixed amount of wealth in the world, wherein adding one dollar here means it was subtracted somewhere else. Here is a straightforward example. Not all the gold that exists in the world has been discovered. So let us just say that there are 10 million pounds of undiscovered, unknown gold reserves that exist underground on this planet (there is likely much more). That is a nice round number. If gold is selling at $1,000 per ounce (another nice round number) and all this gold is discovered at once, then $160 billion in additional wealth would be introduced into the world’s economic system. This would be gold which did not previously exist, mind you.  Now let us extend that logic to where you and I live. That gold has value because people everywhere want it. It therefore holds intrinsic value. People will use dollars or euros or yen (or whatever currency) to buy that gold. It would be immediately in demand. (Ignore for a moment the fact that the introduction of that much additional gold into the world market will drive down the price of gold, because more of it is available and therefore its increased supply will drive down its marginal demand.)

My point is that wealth is created by producing what people want. If what is produced is wanted, it holds value. Therefore, just like gold can be mined and made available, each of us can likewise produce goods and services that are of value to people around us. The production of those goods and services creates wealth to the extent they are wanted or in demand.

There are a few reasons these concepts are so important. One is because there is an ardent movement in our culture to cast those who are the Haves as people who are mean and oppressive and can only have obtained their wealth by unethical means. Conversely the Have-nots are cast as people who are the poor, disenfranchised and otherwise abused by the Haves (last I checked, this was called coveting). This line of thinking is the bedrock argument for taking some portion of the property that the Haves have and transferring it to the Have-nots, simply because they do not presently possess it (and this very act itself would be the obtaining of wealth by unethical means). The logic of this thinking is fatally flawed. Just on one level, who decides where the boundary is between being classified as a Have and being classified as a Have-not? What qualifies those who draw that boundary to do so? Is the desired outcome that eventually everyone is equally poor? When does private property no longer belong to its owner? The fundamental presumption underneath this thinking is that additional wealth cannot be created, that it is not possible for everyone to be Haves. The disciples of this line of thinking could not possibly be more misguided. Most people in most third world countries think all Americans are Haves.

Furthermore, those who view the world in this class-warfare mindset (I call it the Philosophy of Envy) demonstrate an ignorance of the simple fact that wealth can be created. It is created by the efforts of individuals. However, wealth is not created by all individuals, only by the diligent ones and among those who do create wealth, they do so with varying results. The comparative diligence they apply in their trade often determines the relative value of the goods and services they produce.

So if we simply let the above proverb instruct us, it tells us plainly that those who are relatively idle will eventually lead an existence of shortage. They will become poor. It also teaches us that diligence will produce wealth. So it is important for us to grasp the meaning of diligence, so that we may apply its power. Diligence is simply constancy in effort to accomplish something. It is painstaking attentiveness and persistence in doing anything. The understood assumption is that what is being done or pursued is of commercial value (that it is worth it). There are very few diligent players of video games. There are no diligent watchers of soap operas and movies (both of which who devote hours and hours each day to those activities) who are producing any wealth for themselves for the time invested.

The message is clear: we must all find what we can do that is of value to some market of individuals or organizations. We must diligently apply ourselves in that pursuit. The more productive we can be, the more wealth we can create. Within each of us there lies dormant a gold mine of value. For most, that vein of gold stays undiscovered. It requires prospecting and lots of digging. It requires drilling and excavation. When once discovered, it requires considerable effort to process and refine that “gold” into a desirable product. This all requires work. But those skills, gifts, nacks and talents have the potential for widespread value.

The truth is you have a gold mine within yourself. The gold is often buried deep within and most likely not developed to maximum potential. This is where hard work pays off: developing and improving those skills Providence has given to you. Diligence is the miner’s pick and shovel. Diligence is the refining fire. Once our skills are discovered, extracted and refined, they bring value to the world around us. 

We can create our own wealth. It is never too early, or too late, to start. There is no telling how we may bless our world.