"Wealth Itself Is a Process, Not a Hoard of Stuff" #QotD

"To speak of ‘having’ wealth creates a dangerous misimpression. We are wealthy not because we have somewhere in a holding pen a gargantuan stock of stuff called 'wealth' that we, either individually or collectively, can access and then somehow distribute. No such massive store of real wealth exists.
    "Instead, we are wealthy because we live our daily lives as part of a global process of wealth creation and distribution. This process consist of every activity from bakers awakening early each morning to prepare the muffins that we buy at Au Bon Pain to Wall Street wizards assuming personal risks as they direct financing to where it will be most productive. Because state intervention too often slows and distorts this process much as sand slows and distorts the operation of gears, state intervention obstructs the daily process of creating and distributing the real goods and services of which our wealth actually consists.
    "In short, if this process of wealth creation is slowed, we become less wealthy because, again, our wealth is not accumulated stuff; it is the smooth and successful 24/7/365 operation of a process of producing goods, services, and capital goods."
          ~ Don Boudreaux, from his post 'Wealth Itself Is a Process, Not a Hoard of Stuff'
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