May 14th, 2009 by mikekarnj
According to Wikipedia, “wealth is an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. ‘Wealth’ refers to some accumulation of resources, whether abundant or not. ‘Richness’ refers to an abundance of such resources. A wealthy (or rich) individual, community, or nation thus has more resources than a poor one. Richness can also refer to at least basic needs being met with abundance widely shared.”
So, in the old economy, wealth was determined by how much money you have, your family name, your school, etc. Most of the things you’ve seen in high society or the upper class. The problem with this definition of wealth is that it’s purely destructive. When a person is motivated by the pursuit of profit, he or she will start making decisions outside the normal realm of morals and ethics.
If you’ve seen the film, The Corporation, they reveal that “a disturbing diagnosis is delivered: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.” Symptoms include the “callous disregard for the feelings of other people, the incapacity to maintain human relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness (continual lying to deceive for profit), the incapacity to experience guilt, and the failure to conform to social norms and respect for the law.” Pretty scary huh? Enron, Worldcom, sweatshops, and Madoff are great examples of this psychopath behavior and the consequences that result from it.
What I’ve noticed is this notion and concept of “new wealth.” Within our generation, it doesn’t matter how much money you make or how “wealthy” you are through monetary means. With the collapse of the financial system (from psychopathic investment bankers) to the numerous corporations filing for bankruptcy, we’ve seen what “business and wealth” will cause individuals to do.
The currency around “new wealth” revolves around your creativity, innovation, cross-displinary networks, and what you’ve actually done to make this world a better place. These are the people that are “rich” in my books. Not the investment bankers on wall street leveraging more buyouts with inflated money that doesn’t actually exist to make an extra buck.
As we move into this conceptual age, the new currency should revolve around creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and not on making billions at the expense of others. I’m just glad that the majority of investment bankers have finally moved out of Manhattan because the “wealthy” creative folks are finally moving back in.
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Michael is the Co-Founder of All Day Buffet. You can follow his updates by following him on Twitter.
http://www.alldaybuffet.org/2009/05/14/new-wealth/#more-2258
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