CQ: What does “Wealth” Mean to me?

Wealth. I suppose some would call defining the concept of wealth creative. I don’t. After being a finance professor for over 27 years, I take the word “wealth” in a very literal sense. No arguments! I’m the finance professor in the room.

In a capitalist society such as the one we live in here in the United States, wealth is simply defined as the monetary or exchange value of something. Economic value, if you will. An example. Investors and speculators own corporations. Each part of the corporation is called a share. Each share has a monetary value. If a share of XYZ, Inc. is worth $10, then an investor who owns 10 shares has $100 of value in that corporation. That is called shareholder’s “wealth.” After my own professors in my Ph.D program convinced me of this,, through fear of retribution, and teaching it for so many years, I do indeed believe that wealth can be defined in terms of economic or monetary value.

Wealth is used in a similar manner throughout the quantitative business disciplines. I take the concept of wealth as factual and accurate and as I defined it in the first paragraph.

Can “wealth” and “creative” be used in the same sentence? Some large banks, non-banking institutions, and other financiers certainly tried to do that during the recession of 2008 when they used all sorts of creative financing methods to lend money to homeowners who really didn’t qualify for mortgages. The economy almost collapsed due to such shenanigans. That’s what I call the creative use of the word “wealth.”

Are there other creative meanings to the word “wealth?” I suppose we could say we are wealthy if we have a plethora of kittens or puppies or the love of our families. That is the warm and fuzzy side of wealth and I think there should be another word to describe such states of mind, not the word “wealth” which is clearly so useful in the business world. Maybe we should say we have an abundance of kittens or our cornucopia runneth over with the love of our families instead of using the business-honored word of wealth. We certainly would not describe the state of our corporations’ shareholders by saying “shareholder’s abundance” or “the shareholder’s  of XYZ, Inc.’s cornucopia runneth over,” would we? That would not be correct business terminology. Wealth has to be quantifiable, measurable. It’s hard to measure the value of said puppies or kittens or the love of our families.

Now you know this writer’s definition of wealth. What you don’t know is how much fun it has been writing this post and being the curmudgeon in the room! #amwriting #amblogging #writing #creativequestions

In response to Creative Questions