Money goods wealth

Palmer had a close friend, fellow gambler John Parsons Cook. Cook had inherited 12 000 and retired from his work as a solicitor, choosing to spend his time and money on horse racing. Having never enjoyed good health, his new-found wealth led him into a more riotous lifestyle and he is reported to have caught syphilis, for which he was treated by Palmer. 

If the system of action is a perfectly competitive market and all transactions are voluntary exchanges within that market, it is possible to characterize the power of each actor very simply. It is the amount of wealth he brings to the market, either in the form of money (which is the measure of wealth) or in the form of goods and services desired by others who have wealth (which is measured by the extent of that demand). 

In the same way that mass, length, and time are fundamental units of measurement in physics, cost—as in the cost of goods and services— is a fundamental unit of measurement in economics. While the units of measurement may vary (based on currency, barter of goods, or exchange of assets), this concept of cost is ingrained in our economic systems. Most of our measurements involving money, or the accumulation of wealth, are predicated on the concept of the cost of goods and services. Even the term inflation is based on this concept. 

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