On value and wealth.

towards a new perspective

Source

Our current way of measuring value and wealth only works for a small minority of humanity at the cost of the vast majority. 8.6% of humanity hold 85.6% of the financial capital on the planet — and 29.9% of humanity hold 97.2%. This means that 7.13 billion people have essentially nothing.

But what does wealth actually mean?

If i apply Maslow’s dimensions — i could say that true wealth means to be subjectively wealthy in all five dimensions. In my mind there cannot be any lesser goal than to work towards a world in which each human subjectively feels wealthy in all of these dimensions.

If i then use Solviev’s eight forms of capital to think about the inputs required to achieve this on an individual level — and organize them in levels of abstraction, i arrive at the image above.

If i then give more weight to the more concrete forms of capital, i arrive at a ranking which puts financial capital clearly in the least relevant position while social capital becomes one of the most relevant.

Do we — the privileged ones — find the courage within us to convert our financial capital into the other forms to the benefit of humanity, the planet and — most importantly: future generations?

Do we allow ourselves to let go of the power we think we hold and trust in the positive nature of what it means to be human?

Do we manage to find the emotional foundations and stability within us to truly, deeply break free of the constraints of our current model of measuring value and wealth?