Wealth: From One-Dimensional, to Multi-Dimensional
The Evolution of Wealth
Welcome back, friends
Today, let’s build on the foundation established last month by exploring the idea of redefining wealth.
As with most things in life, looking to the past often helps us to better understand the present, and the potential for the future. With this in mind, let’s take a look back and a look forward at the meaning of wealth.
A Look Back
If we take a look back, we’ll see that the word wealth came into our lexicon in the mid-13th century from England, born from the root word “wele” (or “weal” depending on the source), which means well-being. Therefore, the word wealth found its definitional roots in well-being, and embodied the essence of health and happiness. But, overtime, wealth became synonymous with an abundance of money and material possessions. There are evolutionary reasons for this; due to the increased sophistication of money and the increased sophistication of economies—over time. Over time, as money evolved and economies evolved, so too did our concept and definition of wealth—with money and wealth nearly collapsing into meaning one and the same.
And here’s the thing, the meaning of words can evolve overtime. In fact, there’s a word for this and it’s called etymology. Etymology is the study of words, and how the meaning of words can change over time. Over time, words have a way of wandering and finding their way onto different pastures. Meaning that, meanings can mutate. The meaning of a word can become more expansive over time or more narrow over time; it really depends upon what’s going on within its environment. Because words, like people, are often a product of their environment.
That said, it’s time for us to revisit and redefine wealth with consideration for the technological advancements and societal shifts that are underway. These advancements and shifts are propelling us into a new wealth paradigm, providing us with an incredibly unique opportunity to revisit and redefine wealth from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional. More specifically, from wealth as simply an abundance of money → to wealth is an abundance of money and other assets.
Quantitative and qualitative assets. Financial and non-financial assets.
Image by Trophim Lapteff via Unsplash
A Look Forward
People are increasingly interested in looking at wealth in a holistic way, through a multi-dimensional lens. The concept of wealth is now extending beyond the dollar, which makes a lot of sense (or cents, to play with words here). Why, and why now? Because technological advancements and societal shifts are enabling us to attain, maintain, and optimize many assets and aspects of our lives in newfound ways; thereby adding to the dimensionality and richness of our lives.
More to come on the future of wealth, which is increasingly personal. The rising interest in self sovereignty is providing the unlock for living a truly wealthy life.
Until next month…
Jennifer
P.S. You can click on the below Instagram post to scroll through the related thoughts (hence me sharing here)!
Love this perspective! There are many types of wealth and capitalism has skewed us too much towards the financial type