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 exclusive power of the state to print money, rather than that of private individuals, creates a situation where we all must operate within a limited amount of currency. This limitation implies that because wealth is quantified and acquired through money, whenever one person gains money, another must lose an equivalent amount. It’s similar to the fact that when I settle my bank loan, another person has to go bankrupt. The opposite holds true as well. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”