What is Wealth?
Frankly #86
Individually and collectively, we have become fixated on the pursuit and accumulation of wealth. But what is wealth? Our singular focus on financial capital obscures a fundamental truth: money is merely a marker for real wealth, all of which originates in nature. With the universal fungibility of the US dollar into everything as the engine, we are now transmuting the world’s wealth into income at an unprecedented rate. Driven by cultural incentives to maximize individual profit, we are collectively depleting the high quality ores and energy stocks, as well as the natural world and the ecosystems that sustain us.
In this Frankly, I explore the evolutionary and historical foundations of 'wealth', from optimal foraging theory and relative fitness to the modern pursuit of profit. I examine the collective action problem which the pursuit of wealth on a finite planet creates: as we chase more ‘fake wealth’, we degrade the 'real wealth' - the stability of Earth’s ecosystems that sustain our descendants and those of other species. We are drawing down our natural bank account in the pursuit of individual financial gain.
Can we mature our understanding of wealth before it’s too late? Could we create regenerative cultures which transmute income back into wealth? And can we collectively recognize that true wealth cannot be found in our pockets but rather in the natural world we inhabit?
In case you missed it…
This week, I was joined complexity scientist, Peter Turchin, to discuss his work modeling the key factors that drive patterns of peace, turmoil, and revolution in nations throughout history - and how those connect to the situation in the United States today. Turchin outlined the cyclical nature of ‘elite overproduction’ and its role in political disintegration, emphasizing the importance of economic inequality and elite struggles for control.
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My thought for today
To oppose something is to maintain it. If you turn your back on Mishnory and walk away from it, you are still on the Mishnory road. You must go somewhere else; you must have another goal; then you walk a different road.
Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Wealth?
That's a biggie. What about deep, rich top soil combined with a stable climate and fully charged aquifers like the Ogallala at the end of ww2?
How about money that is tied to something real in the world like gold, and not an economy based around buying and selling each other's debt.
And what about the stories we tell about ourselves?
Bring me your huddled masses, what a fantastic line. Who couldn't get behind that and put their energy into it. To me that one line gave real meaning and purpose to many generations of Americans. Seems like creating a large narrative which can touch people at a profound level is the critical missing piece without which a country is bankrupt.
And is MAGA such a narrative? Of course not on so many levels. From the physical, the collapse of the Ogallala, the disappearance of a stable climate and 70years of mining your top soil to the metaphysical, as many now see, since the events on Dealy Plaza, that the POTUS for the last 62 years has been nothing but an actor who has been given a part to play and a script to read from. No, the US is bankrupt. And here in the UK? Well we are the poster child of a failed petro-state.
All,is unfortunately about to be revealed as people refuse to buy UK Gilts.