LITERATURE REVIEW
Define Wealth:
Wealth usually refers to money, property or something which has economic value attached to it. It is the abundance of objects of value and also the state of having accumulated these objects. The use of the word itself assumes some socially-accepted means of identifying objects, land, or money as "belonging to" someone, i.e. a broadly accepted notion of property and a means of protection of that property that can be invoked with minimal (or, ideally, no) effort and expense on the part of the owner. Concepts of wealth vary among societies. Anthropology characterizes societies, in part, based on a society's concept of wealth, and the institutional structures and power used to protect this wealth. Several types
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The theories of David Ricardo, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and later, Karl Marx, in the 18th and 19th century built on these views of wealth that we now call classical economics and Marxist economics. Michel Foucault commented that the concept of Man as an aggregate did not exist before the 18th century. The shift from the analysis of an individual's wealth to the concept of an aggregation of all men is implied in the concepts of political economy and then economics. This transition took place as a result of a cultural bias inherent in the Enlightenment. Wealth was seen as an objective fact of living as a human being in a society. Some people believe wealth is a zero-sum game, where there is a limited amount of wealth and some must lose in order for others to gain. As a result they are concerned primarily with issues of wealth distribution rather than wealth creation. Others believe that wealth can be readily created. They feel that wealth is not a fixed amount to be distributed. To most of these people, organizing a society so as to optimize the growth of wealth is more important than distribution issues. Many of these people believe in some version of the trickle-down theory in which newly created wealth "trickles down" to all strata of society, thereby making the question of distribution mute.
Sources of Wealth:
Wealth is created through several means.
• Natural resources can be harvested and sold to those who want them.
• Material can be changed into something more valuable through proper application of labor and equipment.
• Better methods also create wealth by allowing faster creation of wealth.
• Ideas create wealth by allowing it to be created faster or with new methods.
Introduction to portfolio
The rich tycoons of their society refused to share their money with the poor. Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Gompers both wrote their essays towards the wealthy with hopes to make a difference for the poor workers and unemployed. Rich tycoons would do anything to keep it for themselves, if it meant leaving it as inheritance
At one point in time poverty was the general fact of the world. Man was always expected to live on the line of poverty, majority of the economic thinkers couldn’t see the world moving away from this standard but we did and have gained great affluence. As Society has grown from this poverty stricken state it once was in, into an affluent one the ideas used to run it have yet to change in some ways. In The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith explains how with great economic growth there should be growth in economic ideas as well. The old idea that were for a country that barely could stay above the water are inappropriate for society today. He proves this by naming numerous issues like The conventional Common wisdom,
In a nutshell, it can be argued that in the event of serious economic developments, various people and groups held different views of what exactly a wealthy society should be. It is crystal clear that Andrew Carnegie and William Graham Sumner held same view on wealth accumulation whereas Henry George strongly advocated for policies that would enhance equality.
The Gospel of Wealth is primarily about the dispersion of wealth and the responsibilities of those who have it. Carnegie thinks that inheritance is detrimental to society because it does not do any good for the inheritor or the community. Inheritance promotes laziness and the lack of a good work ethic does not teach the young sons of wealthy men to make money for themselves or help those in community they live in. Carnegie believes that charity is also bad and instead of handouts money should be given to those in a position to help the needy help themselves to be better citizens. It is the responsibility of the wealthy to use their surplus earnings to start foundations for open institutions that will benefit everyone. Men who only leave their money to the public after they are dead which makes it appear to say that if they could take the money with them they would. For this reason Carnegie is in support of Death taxes to encourage men to spend and use their money during their life. Carnegie says in his essay that a definite separation of the classes is productive for society and is very natural. If the classes were to become equal it would be a forced and change thus being revolution and not evolution...
The research article "If We Are So Rich, Why aren 't We Happy?" By Professor of psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is written to provide information to people and psychologists, with various examples and techniques from his books. Mihaly is the founder of "Positive theory" (1990), and originator of the "flow" concept, so through his studies Mihaly shows us that people in the United States believes materialism and having and excess amount of money will bring more happiness. This however is not the truth his studies show the opposite in fact, and it is clear that his article is more about providing information to the average person, rather than simply stating the facts of his books for a professional study. This is proven to be true when he talks
In the documents titled, William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism and Andrew Carnegie Explains the Gospel of Wealth, Sumner and Carnegie both analyze their perspective on the idea on “social darwinism.” To begin with, both documents argue differently about wealth, poverty and their consequences. Sumner is a supporter of social darwinism. In the aspects of wealth and poverty he believes that the wealthy are those with more capital and rewards from nature, while the poor are “those who have inherited disease and depraved appetites, or have been brought up in vice and ignorance, or have themselves yielded to vice, extravagance, idleness, and imprudence” (Sumner, 36). The consequences of Sumner’s views on wealth and poverty is that they both contribute to the idea of inequality and how it is not likely for the poor to be of equal status with the wealthy. Furthermore, Carnegie views wealth and poverty as a reciprocative relation. He does not necessarily state that the wealthy and poor are equal, but he believes that the wealthy are the ones who “should use their wisdom, experiences, and wealth as stewards for the poor” (textbook, 489). Ultimately, the consequences of
Social class is a group of people who rank closely in property, prestige, and power. Within these social classes exist some properties of class level that are characteristic of their ranking. The first of these is property. Property consists of furniture, jewelry, bank accounts, and other materials that can be quantified into monetary value. (Henslin, 2014) Basically, they are things that can be quantified to add up in quantified value end up un a sum of monetary value. This value is termed wealth. This is different from income. Income is known as the flow of money. Prestige is the next characteristic looked at when determining social class. Prestige is the value which different groups of people are judged with. (Henslin, 2014) Different occupations within society offer varying levels of prestige. The final aspect looked at when determining class is power. Power is defined as the ability to exert your will within society. (Henslin, 2014) The reason to review this is because different classes of society all maintain these aspects at higher or lower degrees, with the upper tier having the
Economics of Reich “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” written by Robert Reich, describes as the title says, why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. In Reich’s essay, he delves into numerous reasons and gives examples of each. It makes one wonder if the world will continue on the path of complete economic separation between the rich and the poor. One very important factor Reich examines in his essay is that large corporations are always trying to find the edge, whether that is new technology or cheaper wages. One may ask, how does that affect me?
There were many theories that promotes and explains how the capitalist system works; however, Karl Marx’s Capital is the first one that can explain the imminent relationship between poverty and wealth, inequality and growth under capitalism. ...
Capitalism can be many different things, but it is basically an economic system that is based off
Wealth inequality is the uneven distribution of resources in a given state or population, which can also be called the wealth gap. The sum of one’s total assets excluding the liabilities equates the person’s wealth also known as the net worth. Investments, residents, cash, real estates and everything owned by an individual are their assets.In reality, the United States is among the richest countries in the world, though a few people creating a major gap between the richest, the middle class and the poor control most of its wealth. For more than a quarter of a century, only the rich American families have shown an increase to their net worth.Thisis a worrying fact for the less fortunate in the country and calls for assessment (Baranoff, 2015).
Capitalism is the economic system in which production, distribution and, exchange of goods takes place for profit by people's own interest. In capitalism, private owners control over industry or market with none or very low interference by government. Capitalism provides right to express their freedom by making decision about their goods and labor. It gives right or freedom to choose what to produce, how to produce and, price of that product. Producer will decide that for how much he or she wants to sell his or her product. These, exchange of goods, all mainly depend on the laws of supply and demandl If there is no demand for a specific product, that producer won't be able to sell his/her product with profit. In contrast, on high' demand of a product, producer can sell and make a lot of profit. The main principle of the capitalism is to give freedom to the individual for their ability to produce something based on consumer demand and, interest in exchange of goods by means of profit and need. In sHort, people get freedom to run the market based on their ability and interest. In an ideal world, it supposed to benefit everyone, producers and consumers, because producer wilf produce and make profit from what people want and consumer will pay what they think the product is worth for. In Capitalism, private owner's make profit over labor. In-real world, labor get less money for their work on which owner make profit. Capitalism provides us freedom of individual, but it neglects the stability of the society.
Marx also goes on to explain that if workers start to earn more money and gain more wealth then he becomes poorer in values and the more his production increases in power and range of materialistic substances. One of Marx’s sayings to support this theory was “The worker becomes the worker”. an ever cheaper commodity, the more commodities he creates”. Karl Marx was largely ignored by his scholars during his lifetime. However, his theories and ideologies came to surface after his death.
There is a little too much greed going on in society. My definition of greed is when a limitless person selfishly wants something and the obsessive addictions is that enough is never enough. The dictionaries definition is ‘an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power.’ People do not realize that greed concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. People think the need of wanting something is just a thought, however if you continue to think about it, eventually the person will find a way to allow greed to take over the thoughts. Greed can make a man, but it can also destroy him ten times over. It is one thing to want money or materialistic ideals, but the necessity almost unavoidably becomes greed. Greed is something
Becoming wealthy is all about a mixture of hard work, making wise decisions, and investing your money and time into areas that will lead you the highest return of investment. There are very few businesses and ideas that will lead you to a million bucks or more within a short period of time. In this article, you'll learn the basics of being filled with wealth and how to bring money into your life. You'll discover different ideas to help you lead a life where money just flows into your life.