develop me : Tapiwa Gomo EVERY generation has its own characteristics and cultural lifestyles largely determined by technological inventions and innovations, wealth generation and consumption patterns. Understanding these dimensions and how wealth is defined, produced and distributed is critical in figuring out how to position development strategies within societies. Historians, scientists and anthropologists all concur that from stone to the computer age, the tools that made up the means of production have had a huge influence on how wealth is created and how political power is distributed. The tools humans make, define them, including how the resultant wealth is distributed. But the same tools and technologies supply us with an identity and character. Today, humanity seems to be all about easy money, wealth and corruption. Corruption is now major source of income. During the stone and metal age era, the makers of the tools defined the means of production and what could be made of the tools. These tools influenced shelter designs, food production and consumption patterns, the political system and quality of life. For example, with tools and knowledge of growing crops, agriculture became means of food production, while houses made of stone were reserved for the wealth and the powerful. Such shelters became centres of power, pride and opulence. The ability to make and use tools was a major source of power and wealth. Tools were traded and tool makers were hired to provide and impart knowledge to other communities in exchange for other means of wealth. They exercised agency and sometimes power. What is critical to note is that the design of tools influenced production and wealth generation. Wealth distribution then became cyclic in the sense that the producers of tools traded with those who needed to use them to expand their wealth who then created labour opportunities for those who did not have neither of the two. In all these stages, wealth was acquired and distributed through either labour or trade. A major boom in the way tools influenced wealth production was witnessed during the Industrial Revolution, now also known as the First Industrial Revolution, between 1760 and 1840 in Europe and United States of America. The period saw the transition to new production processes from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and waterpower, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanised factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth. Power was centralised in the production or ownership of the means of production. Industrial Revolution also spawned the growth of modern commerce which saw money emerging as a central agent in facilitating trade. Wealth began to be quantified in monetary terms. While production of goods and services continued to increase, multiply and diversify, money market became a component of the economy initially to provide short-term funds.