Thought of the Day 05.14.09

If you walked into my house and looked around at all the toys my children own, you might draw the conclusion that I am a very wealthy man. But in reality, around 90% of those toys were either given to us by friends or else purchased on closeout, in a used store, or at a garage sale.

See, when those who earn more than I do buy new things and eventually sell or donate them, that creates the opportunity for my kids to own them. So even though I’m not particularly rich on my own, the fact that I live in a society so overwhelmed with material excess means that my children enjoy a quality of life enrichment from toys higher than virtually any other child in the history of the world.

That’s why it baffles me when people complain about other people making more than them. Secondary markets fueled by people who earn more allow the rest of us to have standards of living well above whatever we could afford to purchase on our own at retail. That’s a form of wealth people rarely give our society credit for.