When I consider various areas in life, I notice the same mechanism permeating them all. It's easiest to notice in the economy with tangible indicators everywhere: money piles and the "right" neighbourhoods and the "right" clubs and the "right" fashion statements worn on the "right" occassions and the "right" universities and the "right" clubs.
By "right" is not meant meeting some morally or ethically or spiritually correct criteria but the single measure of "desireable" by those who strive to achieve the "highest" level of social economic success.
These "right" things all have a cost in both pecuniary terms and other measures. Some of the cost is paid by ancestors. Passage on the Mayflower, greatly valued to this day, or some lesser known in steerage class on some crowded ship bound for opportunity also known as America where citizenship has been and is of great value, in part because it offerred a freedom not available in countries of origin.
There are tangible measures in the economy of what is desireable of what is wealth. Money is used as the usual direct or indirect measure of wealth for both the desired tangibles and intangibles and is itself one of the desireables. Both economic or fiancial wealth and its and all other's measure of wealth is money.
There are other forms of walth in other social forums. Academia has its measures and rewards. Bachelor, master, doctoral and engineering degrees and certifications by technology institutes, membership in bar associations, designations in accounting from chartered accountans to bookeepers at the ends of the watchdogs on honest recording; all of these are wealth and all generate wealth.
There are other areas too where wealth exists.
Politics from local to international levels have wealth instiled in them and are wealth. Here power from democratic ballots, the measure of wealth.
Religion has belief for its wealth currency.
John Kenneth Galbraith suggested that economics is faith in that it is a system of belief also.
This belief generates credibility in this or that school, model or theory. This credibility is the currency of economic wealth.
Commuunication has audience as its form of wealth. Science has fact and information as its wealth.
Wealth of one kind is transmutable into other forms or detractable from it. Political wealth is acquired by tranmuting financial and communication and social and religious forms into the votes that land positions in society that generate more of the same kind of wealth and other forms as well.
Two terms of sitting in the house of commons insures a continuing flow of income beyond political life and fills tghe coffers of other forms of wealth: public speaker, guest academic, published author, invitee to social events and the such like.
Wealth is transmutable.
