Define Wealth

A succinct definition of wealth would state that a person possesses wealth if they have stuff that other people want.

You may have a temptation to say, “Of course, people want the valuable property that wealthy people own.” But that is not what I meant.

The property of wealthy people has market value because people want it. If people did not want it, it would have no market value.

I do not wish to belabor the point right now, for I want to give you the opportunity to cogitate on the concept of value and wealth. The property of wealthy people has no intrinsic value. It only has value to people who desire it.


People tend to use the term Market Value instead of Market Pricing. Market value refers to the common price established through the market process of multiple exchanges of units of indistinguishable economic goods.

Market value actually means the market values the good/service more than dollars given up.

One thought on “Define Wealth

  1. So if I do not desire another’s collection of classic cars, I would not necessarily say that the owner is wealthy. Others may view the owner differently, if they desire to have a collection of classic cars themselves.

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