CopyRight @ 2003
There are a number of forms of wealth.
There are the basic forms of health, beauty and brains.
There are many forms of material wealth.
Both wisdom and knowledge are forms of wealth.
Youth is a form of wealth.
There is the wealth of physical potential and ability
There are many forms of human beauty.
There is simple physical beauty.
There is the beauty of health.
There is the beauty of youth.
There is the beauty of music, song and dance.
There is the beauty of the thespian.
There is the beauty of wit.
There is the beauty of the writer and poet.
There has always been beauty and wealth in nature, but humans have brought it to a new degree.
What we would call health, beauty and brains could be referred to as superior physiology, morphology and psychology, but that would take something from them. health, beauty and brains represent genetic wealth. Many types of beauty need development for a genetic potential to become a wealth. Intelligence must be trained and developed. Even physical beauty can fail to be wealth if not managed properly by its possessor. This is not the case of the wealth that is a superior immune system. That is probably not very malleable to intentional exercise.
Different forms of beauty come under the Mr. Darwin's heading of secondary sexual characteristics. Humans use many forms of this including physical beauty, singing, dance, wit, smell and other things to attract a mate. They can even use material objects as sexual attractants, such as clothing, a car or house.
Non-genetic wealth, such as material possessions, are well known in terms of biology as reproductive resources. This can refer to a reproductive location on a beach or nesting materials. They are resources that can make increase the probability of successful reproduction and enhance the survival chances of the offspring. In humans this may mean a nice house in a good neighborhood and the financial means to put the offspring through a good school.
Many social species have situations where family and social relationships are a kind of wealth that enhances reproductive survival. Being extremely social, humans have brought this to a new high. Social connections can be the most important kind of wealth that an individual can have.
There is another distinction to wealth, but it has to do with memes and
beliefs. A person can look at wealth as something that everyone can have or
that wealth is wealth because only a few have it. Is a person beautiful because
they are beautiful or because they are more beautiful than all others? Is a
person wealthy because they have all the resources for comfort and successfully
raising a family or because they have more material wealth than others? This
becomes an extremely important philosophical perspective in the long run and
relates to important decisions about morality and long term human survival.
Depending on belief, all humans could have great wealth or only a few.
Related to this is a meme about the nature of wealth. Wealth can be looked at
as something static or something to be created. Through most of history,
wealth has been viewed as something static to be accumulated like lands or
gold. One thing about the rise of the merchant class is that they developed
the view of Capitalism that held wealth to be a tool of productivity to
create more wealth. This is a good illustration of the power of a meme.
Related to this is an observation from my brother that no nation has ever
recovered from great wealth. Possibly not completely accurate, but it certainly
illustrates a problem. Once a great wealth is created, it may be that it becomes
more personally productive to manipulate existing wealth than it is to create
new wealth. This is when Capitalism can become a problem when wealth is used
as a bludgeon of control rather than a tool of production. It may be actually
be used to reduce production or innovation to protect an existing form of wealth
that might be replaced.
Another thing about wealth is that it can lead to failure of survival. The more popular kinds of wealth, physical beauty and material wealth, have a nasty habit of causing problems for various reasons. Sometimes wealth can give rise to distorted perceptions. A writer made the comment that "most people that inherit wealth consider themselves to be geniuses". Many a great beauty has gotten a completely distorted view of the world because of their desirability. Also, because of all the kinetic distractions available in the modern world, a physically beautiful person may be offered many corruptive wastes of time, such as drugs and excessive partying, as a trade for their beauty.
Inappropriate value can be put on wealth that devalues what is necessary to survival. Material wealth can lead to conflict in a family that destroys the family. Obsession with material wealth can make family of reduced value. Some people pursue money to the exclusion of all else, including family. Physical beauty can have the same effect. A person can so value beauty or their beauty, that having children would be unacceptable as a distraction, interference or risk to their beauty.
Wealth can open doors and make life easier, but it can sometimes make life easy enough that the person is not prepared for other challenges that are required for survival. That tends to fall under another topic of personal development though. For every strength there is a weakness and for every weakness a strength. It is not always true, but is true without some wisdom.
Here is another perspective, but it must not be forgotten.
It is all well and good to artificially select for the traites of beauty,
but one must also carefully select for the traites that allow for the
appreciation of beauty. These would often or perhaps always be different
than the traites that create beauty and could ultimately be more important