Family Wealth

Over the next few weeks, or months, I will be writing on the various types of family wealth I have observed.  It is my hope that by reading here we will begin to redefine or 'reform' the current way we view wealth.  

In the past, in an agrarian economy, which represents the majority of human existence, 'wealth' was measured not by a portfolio of securities but more by the size and abilities of ones family.  Land, and its fruitfulness, has also historically been a good guide for measuring ones wealth.  So, how did we get to the point in culture in which wealth is measured by our ability to hoard for ourselves and not by our ability to produce and our relate to one another?