An asset is the foundation of all economic activity. If you have assets, you can run a business and settle your debts. The ways to create assets are ‘how one works,’ ‘how to receive gifts from others,’ and ‘how to purchase assets made by others.’ There is a way to steal, but it is a crime. If you don’t initially own an asset, the simplest and almost the only way to create one is to produce something with your own labor. Whether the product is a service or a good, it must be produced unconditionally. Trading products creates added value. Thinking about trading later and making products first is the fastest and most basic way to escape poverty. Therefore, produce even the smallest things every day. Knowledge, records, art—whatever! - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
The poorer persons are, the more likely they are to consider the system they are in, not their abilities or character. The poor are more likely to choose to live in ways that make them poorer. It's not because they're stupid, it's because the system they're in leads them to make those choices. Rutker Bregman, a Dutch historian and author, says that everyone is forced to make such decisions when they are placed in this environment. The way out of this system is to change your worldview. Poverty is a state of being, not an outcome. - Joseph's "just my thoughts"