World governments, central bankers, and the general populace have all been consumed by this lie that money is wealth.
You can’t create wealth by creating money. You can’t create prosperity by printing it, giving it away, redistributing it, or abolishing it. So, if money is not wealth, what is?
If printing money would end poverty, printing diplomas would end stupidity. -Javier Milei
Some have defined wealth simply as knowledge. Thomas Sowell wrote, “The Neanderthal in his cave had all the physical resources we have today.” The difference between our age and the Stone Age is entirely the accumulation of knowledge. Our ability to turn those resources into something more valuable than a lump of coal (steam to drive turbines to produce electricity) or crude oil bubbling out of the ground (rocket fuel to send men into space).
Another way to look at wealth is the accumulation of assets – things of value. If you were given all the gold in the world and dropped off in the middle of Antarctica, you wouldn’t be wealthy. All that money is worthless since you will freeze and starve to death on that icy tundra. I would bet you would trade it all away for a single parka and a warm meal.
Wealth is cars, houses, paintings, food, energy, land, businesses, time – anything of value. All of these things are in limited supply on earth. There is only so much land or Porsches or houses or oil or glass. To have wealth is to have ownership or possession on a part of the earth’s valuables.
As you can see, printing more dollars or euros or other forms of paper money won’t magically produce more land or houses or cars. More paper money doesn’t add wealth.
Money is simply a way to measure wealth, just as a ruler measures distance. Adding more lines to a ruler doesn’t make the ruler longer or an inch shorter. As I said, you can’t create wealth by printing money, giving it away, redistributing it or abolishing it. Remember you increase wealth by accumulating assets or skills and knowledge.
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