Systems of Value: Wealth vs Status
Deriving and Imbuing Value.
In one of my previous posts, Known and Unknown: The Dichotomy of Chaos and Order, I argue that meaning is contained in the connections and relationships between things (not some intrinsic property of the things themselves). Value, in the form of status and of wealth, also follows this principle; value is the significance we impart and recognize in something/someone.
Both systems of value, wealth and status, are fundamentally premised on our wanting or needing of their contents. Further, money and assets hinge on our trust that they will continue to represent value (across space, time, and/or context).
Value, like meaning, lies between and not within.
This piece is the equivalent of thinking out loud, written in a few sittings without a structure or goal in mind. I credit the base idea which inspired this piece to Naval and his related post: Seek Wealth, Not Money or Status
Wealth may be a better value system than status for individual fulfillment as well as for society at large.
Naval says that “wealth is a positive sum game,” whereas “status is a zero-sum game.” This immediately struck me as a profound insight which can be generalized over many mediums.
Thoughts on Status
Status is a form social value which communities overtly, discretely, or unknowingly attribute to its members. Statuses are build on the ‘collective fictions,’ or shared understandings held by groups. If a person is very good or bad at doing something and it is collectively recognized as such, that person now carries this attribution in the minds of his or her peers, and in his or her own mind.
Examples of status could include someone’s rank in a competitive sport, number of twitter followers, or degree of success in one’s professional life. Systems of status can exist at small or large scale. They can be simple or complex. They can be important or relatively unimportant for the groups and individuals they pertain to.
An important thing to recognize across these various status vertices is that they are hierarchical at their core. They are essentially methods of ranking groups/individuals on a given basis. Some of these ranking are rather formulaic while others are somewhat abstract or contain a degree of ambiguity or subjectivity.
Many societies of the past, and some to this day, contain explicit class structures which frame the hierarchical architecture of its status system. This breed of large scale status system is generally out of modern favor and seen as oppressive and immoral. Kings and elites even had tally systems for comparing the “value” between men, women, children, slaves, and livestock. In Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (an excellent read on human history) he describes how these ruling-serfdom moral frameworks were slowly traded out for western liberalism, which asserts that each individual life contains some intrinsically equal value.
It seems fair to argue that global systems of status may have become philosophically less important throughout human history. However, it is abundantly clear that they still exist, and that some local or specified systems have even gained significance. One reason (if true), could be that hierarchies of any sort are early emergent, and natural, patterns within populations. Perhaps they only require the most basic forms of communication, and are simply by product of the non-uniform behaviors/results/characteristics of a population. These could help explain why status systems were so crucial to early human civilizations (by crucial here I mean within the civilizations themselves, not that the status systems were pivotal for early civilizations’ existence — although this could also be the case).
Thoughts on Wealth
Wealth seems to be the manifestation or representation of value. It is a form of value which can be maintained across space and time or can be perpetuated in some way. Money and assets are just a medium for wealth, tools which we use to help represent, measure, store, and transfer wealth.
Wealth is created. It is abundance from work. It can be transformed, transferred, degraded, or stolen — but the total wealth of society grows over time, provided it is flourishing. All of the aggregated wealth that currently exists was created by the humans who came before us: this is an easy way to understand how wealth is a positive sum game.
Wealth has the potential to enrich our lives. It can promote well-being at the individual and societal levels. It is the potential to expend energy to accomplish something.
But, our individual relationships’ to wealth (and certainly with money) can be as toxic as they are with status. Many of us even desire wealth (or claim not to desire it) for the status it brings in various hierarchies. We should be careful to understand the nature of our desires and be sure that they are not out of material or social greed.
Those who misunderstand or ignore these fundamentals about wealth may only seek to extract its value rather than create it. Someone who makes their fortune off other’s wealth creation are extremely detrimental to society, and are responsible for the unfair distribution of wealth.
- By creating a new technology, one unlocks potential and is additive to collective wealth. Nothing was necessarily redistributed or taken from others, it was simply created or discovered. The invention of eyeglasses, for example, did not take value away from some and give it to others, it unlocked new value for everyone who benefited from improved vision.
- By re-appropriating, extracting, or stealing someone else’s labor or innovation, however, one is not participating in an additive activity. This is a simple redistribution of wealth, and it does not add total value (although it may add tremendous local value). The enslavement of foreign populations, or the taxation of one’s community are examples of this.
Value Systems and Psychology
Wealth and status are two independent societal values which are awarded in interacting but functionally distinct types of activities/games. Both are clearly incredibly important to how we view and interact with each other.
Chasing status and wealth can have important effects beyond their macro, societal level, implication. They can have tremendous impact on our individual psychological well-being. Because we use them as (imperfect) methods of representing value, they implicate our self esteem, confidence, and internal representation of ourselves in the world.
It is difficult not to use status within a given domain to asses our own ability, talent, or growth — this is true for beauty, athleticism, finances, social standing, and any particular ability or knowledge. Sometimes, for some of us, this can drive us to compete and achieve more than we might otherwise; other times it may leave us feeling defeated, insignificant, or inadequate.
The less we ascribe our own self-worth to our status, and the less we view others by their hierarchical ranking, the better.
This is not to say that status is meaningless or should be completely ignored for practical reasons. Within the pertinent framework or domain of a given system, status is incredibly useful for making decisions:
- It often makes sense to choose the highly acclaimed surgeon over the newly trained one. Similarly it may make sense to draft the school’s track star for your game of pick up soccer over a member of the chess team. We can quickly differentiate ability (in a given domain) based status.
- It does not make sense, however, ascribe generalized value to those high up on a given status system. I would recommend choosing long-term romantic relationships based solely on an individual’s status in a given domain. We should all know that those who are extremely famous or successful in their field are not always good people.
Much of the time, in fact, people must sacrifice elsewhere in their lives in order to achieve high ranks in a given status ladder. Many give up healthy balance in order to achieve societal recognition in a particular activity. Further, many neglect to create value for their family, community, and society because they are busy chasing riches, fame, or accolades.
Don’t sacrifice well-being for recognition. Don’t sacrifice wealth creation for status.
