Wealthy But Yet Poor !

Has it ever occured to you to think about the difference between having money and being wealthy ? Did you know that there are some people who have a lot of money and yet poor ?

According to Paul Graham (see references below) wealth is stuff that we want : food , clothing, cars, houses , gadgets , etc . Money on the other hand, is a means of exchange for wealth in a predefined area . For example, in Zambia our means of exchange of wealth within the boundaries of the country is the Kwacha. In South Africa its the Rand and so forth for other countries. Whenever you travel outside the country , you have to exchange your local money into that which is used in the country you are travelling to. Some money such as the American dollar is accepted as a means of exchange of wealth across many nations.

Money in itself is not wealth. Suppose you were given $1 million today , you would certainly jump up in joy because you will be an instant millionaire !

But wait a minute , where were you given that $1 million? Suppose you, somehow, found yourself with that sort of money in the middle of a desert, where there is no food and water nearby, would it be of any use to you ? If you were not rescued in time , you would certainly die of hunger and thirst.

On the hand if you had food, water and some shelter from the great heat of the desert you would survive for a greater length of time without the money .

In this world the so called poor nations have a lot of natural resources in form of minerals, tourist attractions, etc .These resources are exchanged with foreign money, which is commonly referred to as foreign exchange. This money is in turn, used to import finished goods from the "rich" countries where the resources are exported to.

This is a vicious circle in which the countries with a lot of wealth in terms of natural resources find themselves poor because they have no technology to make finished goods (wealth) from their own natural resources.

What then should be done in order to redress this situation ?

Some countries in Asia that were regarded as being poor before , have turned their economies around by exchanging their natural resources with technology to develop themselves.

The challenge is therefore on those countries which have not yet done so to develop their means to create wealth from their abundant natural resources. If this is not done, they shall remain poor despite being wealthy !

"References : "How To Make Wealth" an essay by Paul Graham (2004) . Website link

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html

Originally published in the book "Hackers and Painters - Big Ideas from the Computer Age" a hard cover copy is available at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/187-3280454-6575621?redirect=true&a=0596006624