Wealth is often imagined as how much money and assets one person has, but that conception is corrupted by ill-use. Wealth etymologically comes from the IE root "to wish, will" and then in OE to mean well-being (what you wish for). It goes off to what you will, choose. Note this all assumes a selection to choose from. Weal and well-being comes a bit later, and from this we get the words wealth and commonwealth. Wealth is meant in relation to what is available in terms of goods and services, not how much money one has.
Of course, more money means more access to what goods and services are available. But in the measure we have a system that allows the few to aggregate power by aggregating money, the less options for the many to work to offer an ever wider array of goods and services. The freer the market the more the goods and services, at an ever falling prices, which means more people have access to an ever wider selections of goods and services to meet their needs.
Wealth is not how many billionaires a country has, but to what degree what percent of the population has access to what array for goods and services.
Jesus Huerta De Soto has a good introduction on this.
So what does this have to do with Islamic Finance? Properly structured, it forbids anyone from gaining the kind of exceptional wealth that aggregates power in the hands of the few which in turn inhibits free markets.
And far from redistributing ill-gotten gains from those who have amassed personal wealth to those who are poor, usury-free markets, that is free markets, optimize the opportunities for everyone to fulfill wants and needs.
Of course, more money means more access to what goods and services are available. But in the measure we have a system that allows the few to aggregate power by aggregating money, the less options for the many to work to offer an ever wider array of goods and services. The freer the market the more the goods and services, at an ever falling prices, which means more people have access to an ever wider selections of goods and services to meet their needs.
Wealth is not how many billionaires a country has, but to what degree what percent of the population has access to what array for goods and services.
Jesus Huerta De Soto has a good introduction on this.
So what does this have to do with Islamic Finance? Properly structured, it forbids anyone from gaining the kind of exceptional wealth that aggregates power in the hands of the few which in turn inhibits free markets.
And far from redistributing ill-gotten gains from those who have amassed personal wealth to those who are poor, usury-free markets, that is free markets, optimize the opportunities for everyone to fulfill wants and needs.
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