Cash money and property like houses, gold, stocks, resorts, and other possessions, having values, are manifestations of wealth to people. In other words, wealth is a measured item of value which is reflected in its price. This definition of wealth excludes anything which does not have price. In the light of this definition, people say he is rich as he owns a certain sizeable amount of money. But to some others, this definition of wealth is not acceptable. They see wealth in virtues of life, in addition to money, gold, antiques and stocks. The virtues, in some cases, have market value, but in other cases, are not. For example, the virtue of honesty has less value or no value in a corrupt society like Bangladesh.
On the other hand, wickedness and cunningness have values in this type of societies because these can be used to extort, loot and plunder. Good habits like good character are often seen as an obstacle to growing rich. The wicked, the dishonest and the cunning use their nuisance values to snatch, extort and make public money their own.
But honest people cannot do so. Honesty keeps them poor in a mafia-ruled economy or even in so-called democracy when it becomes a rule of muscle by the powerful. Bribery at every step is recognised an act of necessity in a corrupt society.
But the few honest people keep their heads high and remain aloof from the culture of corruption. Why do they behave so? Because they think bribe-taking or resorting to any other type of corruption is a sin. Most of the honest people believe in the existence of life hereafter and also in the wrath of God for any wrongdoing they commit in this world. A belief in the life hereafter keeps the faithful away from activities which are forbidden in all religions.
Education is also an important wealth. Certainly an educated person is wealthy, but not always monetarily. But most of the people call the highly educated people as poor if they do not own much of material wealth having value. If education is not a wealth, why should people become educated by spending other forms of wealth like money? People do not spend for nothing. They spend on education to gather knowledge which makes them more worthy. Should an educated person, till he is employed or till he amasses much of money, not be called wealthy?
Good health like other non-marketable virtues does not have market value par se. Does anyone call a healthy person rich? In practice, a man with ill-health but having money is called rich. Nobody differentiates any value for ill-wealth from monetary wealth. Also ask the man with ill-health how much he is ready to sacrifice to get rid of diseases? He will surely say, he is ready to part with entire amount of his monetary wealth. But still we call this man rich and men with good health and with no money poor!
Visit hospitals and ask the so-called rich people, fighting for lives in its beds under round-the-clock care of doctors and nurses, what they want to exchange for having good health back. The reply will invariably be that they are ready to forgo all the assets including money, houses, flats, gold, diamonds, stocks and anything else they possess.
What is the use of his riches if a man is rich but carries deadly diseases? Again when richness is measured in terms of monetary value, we undermine or do not attach any value to the element of peace. A man at peace with himself is much more richer than a man who is not at peace with himself even when he is rich otherwise. How do we measure peace at home? Sadly true, there is no measurement in economics for such item as peace at home. Somebody's wife is beautiful and good-mannered. Do we calculate the values of these virtues of his wife when we calculate his richness?
A man, having sound sleep and no anxiety, does not need to visit doctors and remains content with himself. What do we call this man -- rich or poor? Again, if we ask a devoutly religious person what his greatest wealth is, the expected answer will be his 'iman', in other words, his faith. To these men, earthly comforts do not have much of any value. So the definition of richness or wealth will always remain different to different people. No definition will satisfy everyone equally.
Another example of wealth, which does not have market value, is the virtue of enjoyment. Some people can enjoy eating more than others, touring places more than other people. Do we have any measurement for the value of individuals' power to enjoy? God's gifts like talents and geniousness are not put to market for pricing, but these have priceless values.
Economics science measures value in terms of utility. The utility theory states that the higher the utility of a commodity is the higher price it will have. In market place, a commodity having higher utility has the higher price. But from the use or consumption of the same commodity, different people will have different utility and as such, they will offer different prices for the same commodity.
In other words, when inter-personal comparison of utility is not possible, various people will attach different values to the same goods. In this sense, a very rich person is not that rich. A very poor person, in material term, is not that poor.
The writer is Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka, abuahmedecon@yahoo.com
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