Wealth

Wealth is an aggregate of valuables, tangible and intangible. It is cumulative, i.e. it can be accrued over time. It is scarce, i.e. requires ingenuity and effort, energy, resources to be accumulated.

Wealth is sought after because it increases our capacity for individuals and organizations and provides larger spectra of opportunities. Wealth and happiness are not correlated.

Wealth comes in various forms and can apply to individuals, organizations (open networks and others) and ecosystems, up to the entire planet.

Some forms of wealth can be converted into others. Some are transferable (to other agents). Some can be stored, especially the tangible forms, others decay in time or require maintenance. Some are generative, i.e. they increase the possibility of creation of more wealth.

In traditional terms, wealth is mostly reduced to material possessions or monetary currency, which provides access to material resources, processes and experiences. This focus on tangible wealth has lead to a material fetishism in modern life, symptomatically expressed as consumerism. Modern society suffers also from considering transferable wealth and neglecting the non-transferable types.

Intangible forms of wealth are: health, reputation, intelligence, social relations, ...

Some forms of wealth can be converted into others. For example, an agent

Other forms of wealth:

• applied to agents: reputation, credentials,
• applied to organizations (including OVNs): network density, aggregated reputation of agents, public reputation or image, social intelligence, coordination level, sustainability, resilience, regenerative capacity, etc.