First thing everyone here should understand money in and of itself is not wealth. It is but a measuring stick for wealth is stuff, the computer on which I type the meat loaf I ate last night (all the value of that particular meat loaf is now greatly reduced) my wife's wedding ring that sort of thing. Money is exchanged for wealth in one form or the other be it labor (and that's another interesting discussion) or goods. Money in the days of fiat currency is also an inexact measuring stick. Is that house you bought for 16k 40 years ago really worth a hundred k today or have the increments on our monetary measuring stick changed? Inflation - money velocity if you are a keynesian or a neo keynesian, is how the increments on your monetary measuring stick change. Some small amount of inflation should be expected year over year. If that doesn't happen your economy is likely being strangled for want of funds. ON the other hand too much inflation and working folk can't keep up and the 16 ft pleasure boat and the trips to the lake disappear and your working class begins to get restive. And they then become prey to all sorts of stupid leftist ideas.
Next thing to understand. Wealth is not finite, nor is it quite infinite, the average working stiff in the United States of America today is possessed of more stuff - that is to say wealth - than almost all the generations of his family before him, currently not extant, put together. Why is that? Because there simply is far more stuff. Your average American middle class home represents more wealth than was possessed by every human being on the planet prior to the new Stone age and the discovery of the atlatl. To your average leftist that is almost sinful. To your average environmentalist it is a sin. Not that such keeps there leaders from jetting off to see the next solar eclipse in their private plane paid for by selling green indulgences.
Of money and labor
This relationship is probably the most misunderstood thing in the modern world. the basic formula is simple. Job value equals value produced. This is further modified by supply and demand. The rarer the skill set and the more it is in demand and the more value it produces the higher the price the possessor of that skill set will be given. Any skill set that produces no value will be paid nothing. Ergo jewelers make more money than ditch diggers and only government will pay you to sit home and watch TV.
Next thing to understand. Wealth is not finite, nor is it quite infinite, the average working stiff in the United States of America today is possessed of more stuff - that is to say wealth - than almost all the generations of his family before him, currently not extant, put together. Why is that? Because there simply is far more stuff. Your average American middle class home represents more wealth than was possessed by every human being on the planet prior to the new Stone age and the discovery of the atlatl. To your average leftist that is almost sinful. To your average environmentalist it is a sin. Not that such keeps there leaders from jetting off to see the next solar eclipse in their private plane paid for by selling green indulgences.
Of money and labor
This relationship is probably the most misunderstood thing in the modern world. the basic formula is simple. Job value equals value produced. This is further modified by supply and demand. The rarer the skill set and the more it is in demand and the more value it produces the higher the price the possessor of that skill set will be given. Any skill set that produces no value will be paid nothing. Ergo jewelers make more money than ditch diggers and only government will pay you to sit home and watch TV.
