One the reasons for the decline of Rome is that there was no more wealth for it to drain from other peoples. The elite who ruled Rome did not create wealth. They gathered it from others and spent it. The merchants, craftsmen and farmers that actually created wealth by improving on natural products and providing services were held in disdain and for the most part not allowed to benefit from their own labor. Slavery by any other name…
Today we still struggle with the different notions of gathering wealth versus creating it. In some ways corporations and large business owners gather the wealth created by their employees who gain little benefit from the increases in their productivity. True small business owners often work sixty hours and more a week. They are more hands on in the creation of wealth.
There is a parallel in attitudes toward money and spirituality. More wealth is created when it is shared more equally. When laborers are rewarded well, their labor creates more value from what already exists. So the spiritual guidelines of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” works here as well. Imagine that! The golden rule applies to gold also.
Love, like wealth, grows as it is shared. It is all part the wholeness of being who we are as individuals and as a society.