Money is a Terrible Measure of Wealth (Why Bill Gates’ #StopTheMyth Campaign is Misguided, Part 2)

Dave Family 1971Bill Gates says the world is getting better.  I disagree.  See Part 1 for a discussion on that.  Yes, the people on the deck of this “Titanic” (our world) have dressed up in fine new clothes. The music they play is more beautiful perhaps. But they are on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and Bill doesn’t even know it. That’s sad. Let’s continue in his letter found HERE

Bill’s Myth #1: Poor Countries are Doomed to Stay Poor.

(Pic above is me and my “poor” family in front of our cool grass hut in about 1971)

And Bill goes on to illustrate why he thinks this is a myth. His argument is …

(1) look at all these dirty cities of days gone by … and look how pretty they are now, and

(2) look how little per capita income these “third world” countries used to have and look at them now.

Now there is no question that cities have improved. No question at all. They used to be quite dirty and now they are much cleaner. And there is no question that per capita incomes have risen.

But wait a minute. Why are we judging poverty (and wealth) based on clean and dirty cities? Or per capita income? To me, wealth and poverty is not measured in monetary terms at all.  Here’s how I measure poverty …

1) No clean water.

2) Not enough healthy food.

3) Inadequate shelter.

4) People have to work way too long and hard to get these three basic items

5) Isolation.  Lack of community.

6) No sense of achievement or accomplishment

7) Stressful, hateful people around you.

8) Slavery situation

9) Lack of fun and laughter

10) Sickness

I could think of more, but you get the picture.  That’s poverty to me.  Notice that there is nothing in this list at all about money or income or clean, beautiful cities.  Mr. Gates, I would love to inform you that one of the happiest (=wealthiest) years of my entire life was my third grade year when I lived in a grass hut.  See picture above left.  See that smile on my face?  I LOVED living there.  I had just the opposite of all those 10 things I listed above as indicators of poverty, so from my perspective … I was wealthy!

Please, Mr. Gates … I love it that you are helping people get internet access.  Thank you a million times.  I LOVE the internet and it’s probably the greatest tool ever invented.

But please!  Stop measuring wealth with money!  It’s the wrong measure!

Thank you!

One Response to “Money is a Terrible Measure of Wealth (Why Bill Gates’ #StopTheMyth Campaign is Misguided, Part 2)”

  1. eld_jr says:

    The “red herring” in these discussions is the very term, “wealth”, when in fact, it is not just the wealth of the wealthy that is made subject to confiscation/redistribution schemes, but private property of every class.

    We get swept into the flow when the word, “wealth” is used to describe private property, and since hardly anyone I know thinks, “I’m wealthy”, we don’t think it will affect us; but private property as a right has no class identity: The car that I own, though merely $10,000 in cash value, is exactly the same kind of property as owned by ‘Mr. Jones’, whose car is valued at $70,000.

    So, when guys like Bill Gates or other “progressively-minded” folks set forth the idea that “wealth” should be distributed by a non-owner [such as government], what they are really saying is that they do not believe in private ownership of self, of the individual right of self-expression and self-support through individual labor, or of the individual right to the proceeds and/or product of that labor.

    They really believe that the State own the citizens, body, soul, and spirit: The state is god.

    No wonder progressivism is at enmity against Bible religion.