On Creating Wealth 1-22-2011

Anderson, South Carolina

Jesus commented more about money than heaven; it seems he knew where we put our treasure is the same place we put our hearts and affections. In the many years I have been writing essays and sometimes acerbic observations of human behavior, I’ve never had such copious response as was elicited by my recent out-loud musings on the ethics of making money – is it better to make a whole lot of money and then give it away or is perhaps better to give away valuable products and services and create good will, even if at the cost of making money? The sometimes extensive comments suggest out-loud thinking with another round of input has merit, this time looking at money and cash flow as not necessary the last word on wealth creation. It would seem there is merit in considering non-tangible forms of wealth that may well translate in to fiscal wealth at some point.

I received two groups of comments that bifurcated down philosophical lines. By far the larger group said it was a good thing for me to be willing to set aside generating income as a primary motive of doing my creative work. These people saw intangible but valuable merits of doing something with a primary motive of gifting into the community directly. I could perhaps earn $1000 doing a specific photo shoot for a restaurant and then turn around and give the $1000 to some other project or entity of my choice. These individuals see merit in my giving $1000 worth of quality work directly to an entity that could never afford to pay me for it. They suggest in doing this I am generating another kind of great wealth; good will; a sense of sharing and investing in the community. Even secular corporations that exist for no other reason than generating earnings per share understand the incalculable value of good will, even if not directly measureable. I and those who know me well think I do best generating good will rather than cash flow. A substantial number indicate I am getting a far greater pay back than cash provides.

A much smaller group suggests I ought to go ahead and offer my work for sale at whatever the market will bear and then use the generated cash flow for my own charitable or community-building purposes. Some suggest I’m actually able to do more good if I generate large amounts of cash flow and give it away rather than focusing on intangible forms of wealth creation. In a systems paradigm, there is much more to the equation than my own cash flow generation. My goodwill may have the capacity to generate substantial cash flow elsewhere in the community, even if I do not participate in it directly.

If I’m able to give $1000 worth of work to a struggling restaurant and it makes the difference in an effective marketing plan that yields its survival, then I might well have saved several jobs, kept a building from going empty, a downtown from losing a critical mass of business capital and heading down an economic slippery slope. One can extend the thinking endlessly in a systems vein. Keeping that restaurant alive will improve the quality of life for those that want to use downtown merchants and become less car-dependent. It massively improves the quality of life for those that own or work in the restaurant. It benefits the landlord who might lose his building to foreclosure if his primary tenant fails.

Having someone believe in you as an individual or business can be critical to your success. It can energize you sufficiently as to spell the difference between success or failure, especially in economic times that can be profoundly demoralizing and taxing. Gifting a struggling business can significantly boost morale.

Some in the smaller group promoting cash flow as more useful suggest total societal wealth expands and contracts based on entrepreneurial activity. This is certainly true, but perhaps how we measure societal wealth should be looked at more closely.

I can generate societal wealth by going out and murdering people because I was laid off from a failed business. I will create paid work for police, judges, attorneys, jailers, and contractors who build court houses and prisons. People selling concrete and brick and iron rods like it when more prisons are needed. You get the drift. All the societal costs for corrections and criminal activity are counted positively in the Gross Domestic Product. Would we be better off as a society if someone had taken an altruistic approach and done something to keep that business alive and me employed so I did not go on to commit destructive actions that generate GDP? Probably. The social accounting starts to get very murky. Some things are hard to quantify but we do know my homicidal activity would exact a huge financial cost from society. It might be cheaper to keep me happy and employed.

I see two kinds of wealth. The obvious one consists of bits and bytes stored on magnetic platters in brokerage houses and banks, chests full of gold doubloons, and paper currency, shopping malls, rental houses, proven oil reserves. I think the kind of wealth I am after is an intangible one that derives from acts of good will that are non-transactional. If I am stationed in life to generate large amounts of the ‘usual’ kinds of wealth, because I am actually gifted directly to do so, that is a good thing. To try and do some creative work for the purpose of generating large amount of wealth is a bit more problematic. There are plenty of things one can do to generate wealth without having to distort one’s ideals. I find it hard to attempt creative work with my primary motivation being the generation of income. A number of respondents suggest it’s very difficult for them to maintain creative purity or commitment if creativity is undertaken to make money.

There are those of us who create intangible wealth. There are those who create tangible wealth as an entrepreneurial mission. If both are done in a right spirit, then societal wealth can be maximized, all players feeling like they have something to create. The gardener who maintains the beauty of a botanical garden at $7 an hour is just as effective in creating true societal wealth as the CEO of a thriving industrial conglomerate. The retired volunteer who delivers for Meals on Wheels is creating extraordinary value for the community. When we truly come to recognize the merits of all genuine work, we will all be richer for it.