Dwayne Johnson Didn’t Steal His Muscles, Nor Jeff Bezos His Wealth, from Us

 

I think everyone “gets” that Dwayne Johnson isn’t “muscle rich” because the rest of us are muscle poor, but people don’t always understand the same about wealth. There’s been so much disinformation claiming that X can become rich only by stealing from Y that people all too often believe it.

A moment’s thought, however, should be enough to dispel the idea. Human beings emerged into the world with no wealth (aka “capital”) at all – nothing other than one brain, two hands, two feet, and five senses. And it was only by putting those puny assets to work that the world’s first capital was created. Clearly, then, wealth had to be created before it could be stolen.

Because of all the wealth created by those distant ancestors and by our more recent ancestors, we’re all now far better able than they were to use those same assets to create even more wealth – create, not steal, not expropriate, not vote away from someone else.

The catch is that we’ve got to put our assets to work – whether we want to be physically wealthy or fiscally wealthy.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Amen to this.

    Remember when the joke was going around that Amazon lost money on each transaction, but planned to make up for it through volume? It seems to have worked.

    • #1
  2. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Socialism acts like it’s a zero-sum game, as if there’s this one finite pile of money and if that guy has one amount, it’s that much less for me. Maybe if they took the class time they use for “Self-Esteem Hour” and spent it teaching about economics? Nah.

    • #2
  3. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    I had an economics professor that asked his students to think of capitalism as a very complex barter system. His idea was to try to simplify transactions between individuals to show supply and demand and people’s self interest created wealth. Wealth needn’t be  money. Trade a pair of shoes for two pairs of pants, a pair of pants for two shirts you are on your way.

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    PHCheese (View Comment):
    Wealth needn’t be money.

    Money is merely a representation of wealth already entered into the system. It has no value on its own, merely the trust that it can be redeemed for an equivalent level of products and services as was put into the economic system in exchange for it.

    • #4
  5. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    You are never entitled to someone else’s success.

    • #5
  6. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    JamesSalerno (View Comment):

    You are never entitled to someone else’s success.

    But, but, I really really want The Rock’s muscles, and I’m so sincere.

    • #6
  7. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    JamesSalerno (View Comment):

    You are never entitled to someone else’s success.

    But, but, I really really want The Rock’s muscles, and I’m so sincere.

    And I’d do anything to get them, except, you know, pump iron for hours in a gym.

    • #7
  8. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    Very well put, @richardfulmer, and so simple that even a “Progressive” should be able to understand it.

    • #8
  9. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Jim McConnell (View Comment):

    Very well put, @richardfulmer, and so simple that even a “Progressive” should be able to understand it.

    Thanks, but I don’t think I’d go that far.

    • #9
  10. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    Arahant (View Comment):

    PHCheese (View Comment):
    Wealth needn’t be money.

    Money is merely a representation of wealth already entered into the system. It has no value on its own, merely the trust that it can be redeemed for an equivalent level of products and services as was put into the economic system in exchange for it.

    Exactly. The professor simplified things by excluding money  for the very  reason it has no value.

    • #10
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