The nature of capital and income

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 102659555X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-82920

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Fisher, Irving http://d-nb.info/gnd/118533541

Title:: The nature of capital and income

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Macmillan Company

Year of publication:: 1923

Scope:: XXI, 427 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2019

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Introduction. Fundamental concepts

Collection:: Economics Books

i ! THE NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME CHAPTER 1 . WEALTH 51 THE term “ wealth” is used in this book to signify material objects owned by human beings. According to this defini- tion, an object, to be wealth, must conform to only two conditions: it must be material, and it must be owned. To these, some writers add a third condition, namely, that it must be useful. But while utility is undoubtedly an essen- tial attribute of wealth, it is not a distinctive one, being implied in the attribute of appropriation; hence it is redun- dant in a definition. Other writers, like Cannan, while specifying that an object, to be wealth, must be useful, do not specify that it must be owned. They therefore define wealth as “useful material objects.” This definition, however, includes too much. Rain, wind, clouds, the Gulf Stream, the heavenly bodies — especially the sun, from which we derive most of our light, heat, and energy — are all useful, but are not appropriated, and so are not wealth as commonly understood. Still other writers insist, that an article, to be wealth, must be “exchangeable.” But this restriction would exclude parks, Houses of Par- liament, the Hague Temple of Peace, and much other trusteed wealth; all wealth, in fact, which happens to fall into permanent hands. Although it is essential that wealth should be owned, it is not essential that it should eontin- 8

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