Yeah, should have been (1) by creating value, (2) by taking value from others by force or fraud, (3) by being given value willingly by benevolently disposed others. Of these #3 is rather rare except for inheritance (broadly understood; parents may give their children a lot of money while still alive).
Make it “essentially two different ways how people or families get rich”, though, and the remaining cases of #3 are probably rare enough to ignore.
Here’s another case that isn’t so neatly fitted into Viliam’s dichotomy. Suppose your culture values some scarce substance such as gold, purely because of its scarcity, and you discover a new source of that substance or a new way of making it. You haven’t created much value because the stuff was never particularly valued for its actual use, but it’s not like you stole it either. What actually happened: everyone else’s gold just got slightly less valuable because gold became less scarce, and what they lost you gained. But for some reason gold mining isn’t usually considered a variety of large-scale theft.
Of course gold has some value. You can make pretty jewelry out of it, and really good electrical contacts, and a few other things. But most of the benefit you get if you find a tonne of gold comes from its scarcity-value rather than from its practical utility.
Printing money has essentially the same effect, but isn’t generally used directly to make individuals rich.
“Make it “essentially two different ways how people or families get rich”, though, and the remaining cases of #3 are probably rare enough to ignore.”
I think inheritance is an important case, because lack of inherited wealth, by default, is what leads to some people being excluded from becoming self-made millionaires like Mr Graham; and because inheritance isn’t inevitable, it’s something that can be adjusted independently of other variables.
“Here’s another case that isn’t so neatly fitted into Viliam’s dichotomy. Suppose your culture values some scarce substance such as gold, purely because of its scarcity, and you discover a new source of that substance or a new way of making it. You haven’t created much value because the stuff was never particularly valued for its actual use, but it’s not like you stole it either. What actually happened: everyone else’s gold just got slightly less valuable because gold became less scarce, and what they lost you gained. But for some reason gold mining isn’t usually considered a variety of large-scale theft.”
How natural resources are dealt with is an important point in political philosophy. If you think people are entitled to keep whatever they find, you end up with a conservative philosophy, if you think they should be shared or held in common you end up with a leftish one.
In case it wasn’t clear: So do I. But if we think of families rather than individuals as the holders of wealth, Viliam’s two ways of getting rich cover the available options fairly well; that’s all I was saying.
Yeah, should have been (1) by creating value, (2) by taking value from others by force or fraud, (3) by being given value willingly by benevolently disposed others. Of these #3 is rather rare except for inheritance (broadly understood; parents may give their children a lot of money while still alive).
Make it “essentially two different ways how people or families get rich”, though, and the remaining cases of #3 are probably rare enough to ignore.
Here’s another case that isn’t so neatly fitted into Viliam’s dichotomy. Suppose your culture values some scarce substance such as gold, purely because of its scarcity, and you discover a new source of that substance or a new way of making it. You haven’t created much value because the stuff was never particularly valued for its actual use, but it’s not like you stole it either. What actually happened: everyone else’s gold just got slightly less valuable because gold became less scarce, and what they lost you gained. But for some reason gold mining isn’t usually considered a variety of large-scale theft.
Of course gold has some value. You can make pretty jewelry out of it, and really good electrical contacts, and a few other things. But most of the benefit you get if you find a tonne of gold comes from its scarcity-value rather than from its practical utility.
Printing money has essentially the same effect, but isn’t generally used directly to make individuals rich.
“Make it “essentially two different ways how people or families get rich”, though, and the remaining cases of #3 are probably rare enough to ignore.”
I think inheritance is an important case, because lack of inherited wealth, by default, is what leads to some people being excluded from becoming self-made millionaires like Mr Graham; and because inheritance isn’t inevitable, it’s something that can be adjusted independently of other variables.
“Here’s another case that isn’t so neatly fitted into Viliam’s dichotomy. Suppose your culture values some scarce substance such as gold, purely because of its scarcity, and you discover a new source of that substance or a new way of making it. You haven’t created much value because the stuff was never particularly valued for its actual use, but it’s not like you stole it either. What actually happened: everyone else’s gold just got slightly less valuable because gold became less scarce, and what they lost you gained. But for some reason gold mining isn’t usually considered a variety of large-scale theft.”
How natural resources are dealt with is an important point in political philosophy. If you think people are entitled to keep whatever they find, you end up with a conservative philosophy, if you think they should be shared or held in common you end up with a leftish one.
In case it wasn’t clear: So do I. But if we think of families rather than individuals as the holders of wealth, Viliam’s two ways of getting rich cover the available options fairly well; that’s all I was saying.