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.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Introduction. Fundamental concepts

Collection:: Economics Books

38 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Cuar. I § 11 Since wealth and property are each the opposite aspect of the other, economics might be described as the ““sci- ence of property’ quite as truly as the “science of wealth.” If we are studying the economic condition of a whole country, we prefer to fix our attention upon wealth, caring less about how its ownership is divided. We are then inter- ested in the acreage of wheat fields, the extent of coal mines, railways, factories, and homesteads, and not in their owners. On the other hand, if we are studying the “dis- tribution of wealth” — the condition of individuals or of classes — it is property on which we need to fix attention. The idea of wealth, therefore, is associated with the wel- fare of the community in general, while that of property is associated with the welfare of the different individuals in the community. But, it may be asked, why is so much stress laid on the principle that wealth and property are coextensive? It may be conceded that most of the principles of political economy will be unaffected whether or not this one is ac- cepted as rigorously true. Its usefulness consists in help- ing us to arrange our ideas. At present there seems to exist in the popular mind a confusion of the concepts of wealth, property, certificates of property, services, and utility, all of which should be carefully separated from each other. No one can fully understand monetary problems, for instance, unless he distinguishes carefully the three elements to which the term “money” is indiscriminately applied. There is money-wealth, such as a gold eagle; money-property, such as the right of a holder of “greenbacks”; and money-cer- tificates, such as the paper “greenbacks” themselves, If the fact that wealth and property are coextensive were more generally known and acknowledged, some very practical and salutary results would follow. Wild schemes of currency inflation, which are based on the idea that wealth may be

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The nature of capital and income

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation