The nature of capital and income

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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

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Introduction. Fundamental concepts

Collection:: Economics Books

A CHAPTER II PROPERTY §1 THE definition of Wealth in the previous chapter restricts its meaning to concrete material objects. But economics has also to deal with abstract services, utilities, and property rights. These, like material wealth, are bought and sold, and are, in fact, often regarded as a sort of “immaterial” or “‘incorporeal’’ wealth. It is, however, needless as well as confusing to include these elements under the general cate- gory of wealth. They are not wealth, though they are intimately related to wealth. The definition given shows that wealth has two attributes: it must be material, and it must be owned. Its materiality was the subject of the previous chapter; its ownership will be the subject of the present chapter. But what is meant by owning wealth? We answer: to have the right to use it. Such a right is called prep- erty, or, more explicitly, a property right. To own a loaf of bread, or to have property or proprietorship in it, means nothing more nor less than to have the right to eat it, or sell it, or otherwise employ it to satisfy one’s desires. To own a suit of clothes is to have the exclusive right to wear it. To own a carriage is to have the right to drive in it or otherwise utilize it as long as it lasts. To own a plot of land means to have the right to its use forever. The con- cept of property — the “right to use wealth’’ — is more fully expressed by the phrase, the “right to the uses of wealth.” In this phrase we have to deal with two new ideas — rights and uses — each of which needs to be treated separately. : 18

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