>It gives me an opportunity to invite, again, a reflection on the
>distinction of wealth and money.
Just for the fun of it I went to our newest dictionary to seek the usage
of four words, money, worth, wealth and riches and fell into a morass. It
seems to me it all starts with worth. Let me indicate a path of logic and
then suggest a cultural question.
The worth of something is a justification for it. As in, Go to
Trafalger Square, it is worth the visit. A synonym is value, a visit to
Trafalger Square is of some value.
Wealth is defined as a large accumulation of things of value or
high worth. It seems to be more a relative accumulation.
Riches seems to be the valuable things in themselves.
Money is defined as a medium of exchange. It, in this context, is
a medium by which wealth or riches can be acquired.
Connecting to several other threads on this list, it seems that we in the
US place less worth on teachers of our children than plumbers (or any of a
number of other professions).
Is my logic wrong if I conclude that one of the basic changes that has to
be made is in defining what things are more worthy than others? I am
postulating that worth is a value judgement made by people, and that to
change a community one of the leverage points is this set of value
judgements.
--bhobler@worldnet.att.net Bill Hobler
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>