the meaning of Wealth, according to the book of Jarvis

The meaning of Wealth, according to the Book of Jarvis. 

 

According to the Book of Jarvis, Wealth is that which brings the individual pleasure and purpose in life. 

If an ear of corn fills that requirement then so be it.  But if the individual is not satisfied with just his ear of corn and decides to grab yours, and that gives him pleasure and purpose, then that is his wealth.  Suppose his grabbing your corn offends you, denying you of your wealth.  You enlist the assistance of your two very big sons and their four large friends, and you reclaim your corn, along with is corn and that of his wife and children.  Now you feel wealthy. 

Now you and your two big sons and their four large friends are feeling so good about your new found wealth that you go about the countryside gathering up all of the corn in all of the homes. 

This is called great wealth.  Now we learn that while once folks felt wealthy just growing their own corn, they now find no pleasure in doing this planting and weeding and watering because they know that you and your two big sons and their four large friends will be along to grab up their corn.  We have invented the word, "Poor" to describe these people. 

Now you have all of this corn and it is far more than you, your wife, your two big sons and their four large friends can eat. 

You decide to exchange the corn for little pieces of rare metal.  The metal represents the corn.  It is in the possessions of the very same people you took the corn from.  So you give back the corn in exchange for the pieces of metal.  You and your two big sons and their four large friends take the metal to the land over the mountains and convince the folks there that they could have some of these pieces of metal if they just gave you several of their cows, pigs, goats and horses.  Maybe they decide that these pieces of metal will make them happy and give them purpose in life, thus making them wealthy, too.  Perhaps they decide this is not going to make them happy.  So you and your two big sons and their four large friends beat them up and take all of their cows, pigs, goats and horses, thus making you feel even happier and giving your life more purpose.  In other words you become even wealthier. 

But the truth of the matter is that there is no tangible thing called wealth.  Wealth is a figment of our collective imagination.   It is an illusion,

We have created the name, Wealth, to cover our human greed. 

If all humans cared for one another and shared what they had with those around them, we would never know the word Wealth.  We call it wealth to cover the fact that it is really greediness and self serving behavior.  The more self centered and possessive we are, the wealthier we become. 

Wealth is at the root of our troubles.  Put an end to wealth and we will all be better off for it. 

 

Carl Jarvis