Wealth & Money

Current State of Schooling, Society, & the Environment -- Exploration 3

Developed by Jeff Bloom

Money and wealth are of two different types of meaning or of two different logical types. Money is some token used to express value in an economic system. Wealth is a state of our being or our lives. We can have very little money or physical assets, but we can be wealthy. "Wealth," from this perspective, can describe the depth and integrity of our culture, family, values, knowledge, or wisdom. However, we typically equate wealth with the amount of money and goods we have acquired. From certain perspectives, people with lots of money can be quite destitute in terms of culture, values, integrity, and wisdom.

The notion of economy in most contemporary societies is one that has a narrowly defined sense of wealth. The GDP -- Gross Domestic Product -- is a numerical indication of how wealthy the society is. However, Bhutan has instituted a different indicator, the GNH or Gross National Happiness. Although trying to quantify such qualities as happiness is problematic, since there are really no physical dimensions of happiness to measure, the GNH is an attempt to recalibrate the way we think of wealth. Rather than using a narrow economic view that "measures" the monetary wealth of a small percentage of people in any given country using the GDP, the GNH assesses quality of life based on nine different contexts: (a) psychological wellbeing, (b) health, (c) education, (d) time use, (e) cultural diversity and resilience, (f) good governance, (g) community vitality, (h) ecological diversity and resilience, and (i) living standards.[1]

In the following video, "A Poor Man Shames Us All" from the Millennium: Tribal Wisdom in the Modern World TV series, this broader sense of wealth is explored in a few different cultural contexts.

QUESTIONS

• In terms of this video, can you think of any people or situations in your own communities where the idea of "wealth" is not dependent on money?
• In what ways does money affect your family, your community, and your country?
• Have you ever felt that your own wealth does rely in money?

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While there is variation in the emphasis placed on monetary wealth in different societies, we are all deeply embedded in the same global economic system. As consequence, we are all subject to the multiple contextual effects of the same economy and the wide range of contexts.

In our present social contexts, "money" has a huge impact everything from one's identity and feelings of self-worth to education, politics, physical and mental health, healthcare, nutrition, housing, families and relationships, and so forth. Yet, money in most of the world is just a made-up artifact. A 20 dollar, 20 pound, or 20 Euro bill are really only worth the materials they are made of. The days of being able to trade in your paper money for gold are long gone. And, even gold and diamonds ephemeral. They really have no intrinsic value. It's all made up. Then, to extend this money fantasy even further, the stock market is totally an emotional rollercoaster. There is no rationality to stock values. They increase and decrease in value based on the emotional state of investors. And, now there are Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, and a number of other virtual currencies. People complain that they are just made up and are too risky to buy with "real" money (really?). At least, Bitcoin and the others are explicitly made up. You know what the score is. The only major differences are that Bitcoin is not "guaranteed" by the government and the security for your Bitcoin account is entirely in your own lap. Yet, a year ago it cost about $9,000 for one Bitcoin. A year later, Bitcoin was between $30, 000 and $40,000.

While money is really just an imagined item of value, it, in any form, has been having huge effects on just about everyone and every social system. Education systems are driven by publishing and testing companies, whose profits are staggering. Politicians received large donations from these companies to enact policies that depend upon their tests and publications. The same patterns of profiteering off of educational systems exist with technology, food, and refreshment companies, as well. Such a switch to the corporatization of schools has led to the de-professionalization of teachers. The published curriculums are called "teacher-proof curriculums," where teacher must say and do the things exactly as printed in the curriculums. Testing, which really measures nothing about actually learning and understanding, contributes to the dumbing down of our children. Memorizing reams of disconnected information has replaced the development of deeper and more complexly interrelated concepts. Recall of such disconnected information also has replaced the development of creative, critical, deeper, and more rigorous thinking.

At the college and university level, banks and governments make huge amounts of money from interest on student loans. Public, private, nonprofit, and for-profit colleges have generally switched their bottom-lines from learning -- through teaching and research -- to how much money they are bringing in to their coffers. This switch in bottom-lines changes the entire context of education at this level. Decisions are not made based on what will best support and enhance learning, but rather on how much some effort will cost and what will make the most money. These two bottom-lines are not particularly compatible.

The distribution of tax dollars to support public schools, which now includes charter schools, has been a continuing issue. Schools in poor neighborhoods, which are often comprised of people of color, receive much less money than those schools in wealthier neighborhoods. So, while public schools are supposed to provide an equitable and decent education for all students, schools in disadvantaged neighbors lack the resources to do so, which just contributes to the inability of children from those neighbors to develop intellectually, emotionally, and socially in ways that will help them get out of the deeply embedded cycles of poverty.

The same sorts of money entanglements extend through most, if not all, parts of our lives. Even our love for someone else can be affected by our emotional state from an issue with money. It is not so much that we don't love that other person, but the expression of that love may be affected by our struggles with money or with our fights with businesses that regular seem to be trying to get into your pocket for money that isn't theirs. For me, this latter situation usually involves insurance companies not paying for what they should, businesses billing you for goods or services we have not received, and service companies not providing the services they should provide. The list goes on, but there is rarely a week when we're not dealing with some issue that involves money. I don't recall these types of issues as happening very often 40 or 50 years ago, but they certainly have been on the increase over the past 20 or 30 years.

Explorations

Take your pick! Select a particular context in your life that you can view through the lens of money or the notion of wealth. These contexts may include transportation, housing, recreation, family, education, healthcare, employment, etc. How does money affect your life in that particular context? How does it affect you emotionally? How does it affect your social life? What obstacles to pursuing what you want to do occur because of issues with money. To what degree of insurmountability are these obstacles?

How does the money issue from this context affect other contexts in your life?

You can extend this analysis to your close friends and family. Are the patterns of issues similar to yours?

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Notes

[1] Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative's "Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index"

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