Kinds of Wealth
Individual Wealth
Under individual wealth, we may include those transferable material goods like land, building, books and also shares and bonds which the individual holds requiring others to pay money. On the other hand, the debts which he owes to others may be regarded as negative wealth.This negative wealth must be subtracted from his gross possessions before his true net wealth can be computed.
Non-material goods like the good-will of a businessman or his professional connection which are marketable and bring income to him are also included in individual wealth.
National Wealth
In a narrow sense, the sun of individual wealth of all citizens in a country less the debts due to one another during a given period is called national wealth. But in a broad sense national wealth includes the following elements:
- Public material property like highways, railways, dams, bridges, public parks, museums, ports etc.
- According to Marshall, rivers, forests which are the free gifts of nature are part of national wealth.
- Aggregate sum of all individual wealth constitute the important part of national wealth. The internal debt due to one another and the external debt and loan should be deducted to estimate the net national wealth.
- Some economists consider non-material elements like scientific knowledge; arts of production of a country should be included in national wealth. But Marshall says these are cosmopolitan wealth rather than national wealth because scientific knowledge, arts or production, music etc. irrespective of the place of their origin soon become the property of the whole civilized world.
Cosmopolitan Wealth:
It is the sum total of the wealth of all nations. While estimating cosmopolitan wealth, all international debt will have to be omitted. The Ocean, the Antarctica, the surface of the moon are cosmopolitan wealth. The properties of UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO may come under this category.
