If you invent a new process which is more productive over existing methods, then you ARE CREATING additional wealth.
That falls under the 4th item in my list of wealth creators.
In summary ANYTHING which increases productivity is a wealth creator.
I spent many years (23 to be exact) in an outfit which designed and manufactured heavy machinery. My contribution was to computerize many engineering activities and computerize manufacturing processes, which were all done manually before. The productivity jumped by orders of magnitude, especially in manufacturing. In the engineering area, my computer programs generated enough details to purchase long delivery items such as forgings, castings and steel plates 3-4 weeks sooner, which helped my company promise delivery of machines 3-4 weeks sooner, which was a competitive advantage over competitors when customers needed the machines ASAP..
I’ve followed your side discussion with some interest; please allow me to weigh in. I’ll cut right to the chase.
1rudeboy is right and entropy12 is wrong.
Services* do indeed create wealth.
To begin with, every one of the items in entropy12’s list includes many embedded services. Mining companies use lawyers and accountants. These services may be embedded (provided by employees), or they may be purchased from contractors. Either way, they contribute to the mining activity.
The same thing applies to the other three items on the list. We can also add retail services (and wholesale, etc.)
Furthermore, “services” include such things as transportation. What good would mining do, if there were no means of transporting the minerals to the manufacturers? Does it matter whether the transportation service is embedded withing the mining company, or contracted out to independent trucking companies? Of course not!
entropy12 is correct about the repairing of hurricane-damaged properties. That’s an example of the “Broken window fallacy”, which has been explained quite well in other posts. However, that’s not what you two have been debating — and it absolutely does not belong on entropy12’s list. It’s in a different category altogether.
*Assuming that we’re discussing services provided by the private sector (i.e. willing buyers and willing sellers), and not the government sector, where anything can be wasted.
When I re-read this post, it became obvious that your disagreement centers around the definition of “wealth creation”.
entropy12 is focused on “growth” — not all “wealth creation”. 1rudeboy is discussing all wealth creation, and is using the terms correctly.