"Worth"

In the United States it has long been common for people to say that instead of a person "having" a hundred thousand dollars, or a hundred billion dollars, they are "worth" a hundred thousand dollars or a hundred billion dollars. And while I know this has been remarked by foreign observers with a socially critical turn of mind, it seems completely unremarked.

But like a great deal that goes unremarked--everywhere, and at all times and places--it really does merit remark as telling. And unfortunate. The idea of a human being "worth" the net financial value of their material assets is exceedingly degrading, and wrong. This is most obviously the case for those who have little, who are accordingly devalued, and especially those who have nothing, who are literally held to be worth nothing--to be worthless--which is, of course, the lot of the vast, vast majority of the planet. But one can also see it as often unpleasant for even the richest in a society where wealth is synonymous with highly volatile asset values. Smug as they may be about being "worth" more than everyone else, it cannot be a pleasant thing to wake up and find that one is "worth" less than they were the day before.