We are conditioned by society to view poverty as something that happens to people. Dr Madsen Pirie believes that wealth happens and that poverty is the default or “rest” state of humanity.
According to a post on adamsmith.org, Dr Pirie claims there are no causes of poverty. Simply that its the "default" option.
There are no causes of poverty. It is the rest state, that which happens when you don't do anything. If you want to experience poverty, just do nothing and it will come. To ask what causes poverty is like asking what causes cold in the universe; it is the absence of energy. Similarly poverty is the absence of wealth. For most of humanity's existence on this planet, poverty has been the norm, the natural condition. People hunted to survive or lived by subsistence farming, and they were poor. In some parts of the world this is still the case.
In my pursuit of the wealthy life, I’ve often pondered where wealth (money, capital, etc) comes from. This is an area for the economic philosophers out there so I’ll just skim the surface.
Wealth comes to us when we work for it. It comes to use when we earn it. We earn it through manual labor. Better yet, we earn it by thinking, planning and realizing goals. We plan ahead. We invest in education so later we can get a good job. We invest the results of our labor wisely so that later on we can harvest those resources when we need them.
I think Dr Pirie has an excellent point. Instead of asking “why am I poor”, instead ask “why am I not wealthy.” This works at a macroeconomic scale as well as a personal level.
Many people have asked why third world countries are so poor. What is the reason for their poverty? Recognizing that poverty is the “default” state of nations and men, we can begin to adjust our focus.
We are all born naked. Some of us our born into wealth, some of us are born into poverty. We can’t control that. We can however control what happens to us once we are adults. Do we accept the default course in life and continue down a road of poverty? Or do we accept responsibility for our lives and determine that we will control our own destiny?
The philosophers and economists can argues back and forth forever about why nations and individuals are poor. Unfortunately the human lifespan is less than a century. If you want to get wealthy, you have to get started now. Anyone can be poor. However, it takes character, discipline and lot of hard work to become wealthy.
The unusual condition is wealth.
What do you think about poverty and wealth? Which do you think is more beneficial to research? Should we try to make everyone wealthy or should we redistribute wealth to try to make everyone equal? Leave a comment and let me know!
Article Links
Poverty vs Wealth on adamsmith.org
Tags Opinion Poverty WealthRelated Posts
- On Advice
- Get Rich Slowly - Richer Than Rockefeller
- About
- Why should you visit this site?
- Pygmalion Project
Comments
1 Comment so far
BS. Wealth is when others work for you. Poverty is when you work for others.