OK - there's a lot on this board who know a helluva lot more than me about the stock market and investing, but where does wealth originate.

It's my belief that all wealth comes from the application of labour to the earths natural resources to create useful goods.

All the other layers basically mask the fact that the workers are the creators of wealth.

Anyone disagree?

I disagree.

How does a mathematician creates wealth?

What natural resources does the mathematician work on?

Somewhere I read that all NEW wealth comes from farming, forestry, fishing, and mining, and everything else is "value added". By that definition, the pie is definitely getting smaller.

edit: I guess we'll have to do a lot more "value added" then to hold our place, huh? Like Alice in Wonderland, running like the very devil, just to stay in the same place. Wonder what else is down here in this rabbit hole?

Is that sarcasm? Because that sounds idiotic.

Labor + resource = wealth

Mathematicians aka accountants came up with ideas like: Credit Default swaps, home equity lines of credit, the housing ATM machine. Were they creating wealth? Hell NO. That is why the USA is biggest debtor nation in the world. There is very little Labor + resource going on in this country and that is a BIG problem.

I don't know the answer to this one. Do you?

Mathematician creates a more efficient use of that resource so that the same resource yields more goods for more ppl = greater wealth.

I've wondered about this most of my life but still haven't got a good answer. Thanks for asking it.

Where does the value of $1 come from?

How do the countries around the world know how much money to print?

What backs that money, if indeed it represents something else of value?

These seem like simple questions but try finding someone to answer them.

Math, science and technology can also maximize productivity and minimize the necessity of human labor through efficiency, automation, computerization etc.

It is residual value from the gold standard.

Division of labor is one answer. A blacksmith doesn't have time to grow his own food, so he makes tools that help farmers grow food for him, as well as for many others. Anyone who manages to save some money can invest it in a factory where blacksmiths can mass-produce tools more efficiently, or in a factory that makes farm tractors. More money, more food, more wealth.

If this strategy buys enough people enough leisure time to sit and think some more, maybe someone, somewhere, will come up with some new ideas to keep all of this going for a while longer. Or they might waste the extra time on this board.

It sure doesn't come from a bank. I'd look more towards a farm field or an oil well to see where wealth comes from...

This one is easy.

The origination of wealth comes from the government, as they're the ones that make the money. Good, responsible governments, like the US had in the past, wisely used the power of wealth creation to build the foundations of our modern society - the universities, the hospitals, the roads, etc, and a legal system that allows even more wealth to be created through the productive efforts of citizens. The nation-state provides the seed, and the people make the tree grow. One cannot exist without the other.

While it can be technically said that "wealth" is created when someone pulls a resource out of the ground, or makes something, or performs a service for another, the actual "wealth", which is represented by money, is held in trust by the government. Otherwise, there would be no standard system of "value", and "honest" exchange of trade and labor would be next to impossible.

Bad governments, such as ones that fight useless wars and print up dollars without providing the means for people to create actual value for those dollars are logically doomed to failure, as the actual currency no longer represents real wealth. Zimbabwe and the US circa the year 2020 are excellent examples to look at...hehe.

Our family wealth came from the earth (land, sand, timber, soil, water, ice, farming), housing, education, skills/multiple skills/specialized skills, knowledge, experience, professional licenses/certifications/advanced training, labor, discipline, bartering, tools, equipment, automation, computerization, increasing productivity/efficiency, growth, asset appreciation etc.

In my great grandfather's day, much wealth came from human labor, horse power and water power.

I basically agree, but all the other professions do contribute to a society in which workers are able to do their work at maximum efficiency. The other jobs are therefor needed, but sometimes they do seem to get paid more than their fair share. Take the traders in financial derivates; if the workers are the foundation of society, the derivatives traders are the roof and contribute the least to the workers being able to do their job, yet get paid some of the highest salaries. On the other hand, one could argue that they take the most risks and have to bear the most responsibility, I disagree with that though. I think the financial industry should be heavily regulated and all those bonusses should be taken away. Looks like I'm gonna have my way

For another perspective and taking from previous threads:

Wealth is historical and cumulative. We are "standing on the shoulders of giants".

1) Inherited wealth
2)Inventions, patents
3)infrastructure from previous generations
4)previous scientific discoveries

Whatever we add in our generation is derivative of the past and often just a small refinement,for example in terms of science or infrastuctural alterations. Taken to the extreme this idea would say that humans just borrowed what the earth already had available and no wealth was made at all or that for example as you are just born how you are and that was a cumulation of billions of years of evolution that the little you do to change yourself through education,over which you have little inflence in a structured society, is all you can do. So it is all just predestined. So if I were to say wealth is what you think it is and purely subjective this becomes more comprehensible. A beautiful sunset with little work to do is true wealth as the world is what it is and being a busy bee is simply a waste of precious life moments.