Wealth Redefined: Types of Wealth

By: Bikal Dhungel 

' Wealth of Nations', wrote Adam Smith. GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) is the major unit of wealth measurement around the world. People are judged according to the amount of wealth they possess. A person is wealthy if the number of zeros behind the 1 is longer even though he might live a miserable life or be a terrible person. Since the agricultural societies until now, humans have developed the idea of wealth in such a way that everything else is secondary. Schools teach to focus on one thing: money. Pupils aim to do things, for what ? to earn more money, to be rich. Nations aspire to be rich. Being rich is fully understandable and as it enables to bypass poverty, having wealth is a good thing. However, in some time, it is of no use.

Lying on the bed, Steve Jobs confessed this truth that money he accumulated from his company Apple is of no use as he cannot find somebody who would be sick for him. Many other people realise this truth only on the sick bed prior to death when it is too late. Then there are people who are healthy but in the late part of their life and have accumulated so much wealth that they can never spend alone, like George Soros, Warren Buffet and many others. These gentlemen are still trying to use their time to gain more, to accumulate more and add more zeros. Either this is good or bad is everything but a subjective judgement. It certainly depends on how we decide to invest this money, to what extent we give back to the society and to what extent it contributes to redistribute, either nationally or internationally. Bill Gates and many other billionaires have promised to donate 99% of their wealth. Many others followed but having a bigger look into the wealth of the world, almost all of it is somewhere in the form of property, valuable mineral and the majority of people yet are fighting to survive in a day to day basis. They are fighting in day to day because this financial wealth, in terms of money, has gained so much important that the world stops to work in the absence of it and those who dont have it sufficient will have to live a miserable life.

Despite of all this, there are also places and civilizations that have managed to make the monopoly of financial wealth to a minimum. There are 'primitive societies' according to self proclaimed ' civilized world'. The primitive society still places values on social connection, collectiveness in every aspect of life including food, clothing and shelter. There is another type in between, which is probably the mix of both. A society that is still very close and share between the members but at the same time using at least some form of financial wealth. They are mostly in lower middle income countries. In the long term, all the societies are marching towards the epi-center of financial wealth. This is a wrong way.

Why it is a wrong way, one can boar the societies of rich world. Having to make appointments to meet friends, being a lonely person, mental health issues, health issues and others are the indicators that reflect todays society. Hence, this should be modified a little. This article will only list the type of wealth that should be considered in order to achieve well-being. And they are as follows:

- Financial Wealth: With financial wealth one is able to acquire the material well being that makes life easier.

- Social Capital: Social Capital is person's strength in a society in terms of quality of friendship, number of people who would support in times of need, the relationship with family, friends and others etc.

- Human Capital: Human capital is skills and knowledge a person possess. Human capital of a doctor is his ability to check and treat the patients and his vast knowledge of the field of medicine. Human capital helps to acquire financial capital and has direct impact on other types of wealth.

- Wisdom: Wisdom is also wealth. A wise person is normally everybody's friend and from the wisdom, not only he himself will profit rather the whole society. Wisdom is important in every aspect of life and helps for an intelligent judgement in personal and public life.

- Good Health: 'Health is Wealth', a saying goes. Looking back to the story of Steve Jobs, a good health would allow one to think better and have impact on everything he/she does. Only when the physical body allows, a person ca ascribe other dreams.

- Inter-personal skills: Inter personal skills contributes directly to social capital and financial wealth. In terms of business, politics and public sector works, a person with a good inter-personal skills can be a good manager of various issues. having this skill is hence valuable.

- General Knowledge: Most people have knowledge about their own field and they also stay in their field. However, a knowledge of other fields or general knowledge can add value to their skills. We live in an inter-disciplinary world. health experts combined with IT gave us health apps. This has enabled many innovation in all field. Moreover, having general knowledge makes us interesting individuals. people having basic knowledge of everything are good communicators and they keep the friends night out going, they make friends easily and remain curious which is a key to success.

Happiness and satisfaction: Being satisfied and happy with whatever we have and yet aspiring to contribute more is a good skill. The key to happiness is the ability to keep control of our feelings and this in turn makes of happy.

- Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to let our body react properly in a given situation. It can be both happy as well as unhappy situation. Those who have ability to control emotion can divert own mind towards satisfaction and happiness and this has direct impact on our well being.

- Critical Thinking: It is a must. We cannot just accumulate knowledge and skills. We should learn to question what we learn and think critically. It will keep ourselves from having a biased thinking.

- Good Intentions: Whatever we have, whatever we live, and nomatter we are wealthy interms of money or not, in terms of social contact or not, having a good intention is very important. A person with immense wealth can build a society, country and help poor to go to school but at the same time he can cause war, destroy the civilizations and create a real mess. money is powerful. So, having a good intention is a wealth and this will cause good impact in the society as a whole.

The list can go on. All the points mentioned above contributes to the wealth of individuals and nations. Of course one or two can have monir importance according to where and when we live but as a whole, they are inter related. A society which is fair in putting these things to create a wealth of nation will be the best one to live for us and for the future generation.