If we consider the money/medium of exchange as its own resource. When someone invents a hoe freeing up time for other desires, its not the value of the crops th

If we consider the money/medium of exchange as its own resource. When someone invents a hoe freeing up time for other desires, its not the value of the crops that falls. Wealth is not a zero-sum game. The new houses built have added actual value, its just that the amount of money to distribute is limited leading to the appearance of the price of crops falling. This is called monetary deflation, the value of the money itself has gone up since there are more things to buy (demand) while there is a fixed amount (supply). I would argue that the new houses add value. even though I feel that satisfaction is a good measure of wealth and not precisely quantifiable, happiness(Man with house + crops) - happiness(Man with cave + crops) > 0. In short creating wealth. (Some people might argue, his total happiness is a constant and its just dependent on more things now "Simplify Man" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa)