Editing Wealth (section)

==History==
{{expand section|date=January 2019}}
Around 35,000 years ago ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' groups began to adopt a more settled lifestyle, as evidenced by cave drawings, burial sites, and decorative objects.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Beinhocker
 |first1               = Eric D.
 |year                 = 2006
 |title                = The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=eUoolrxSFy0C
 |publication-place    = Boston, Massachusetts
 |publisher            = Harvard Business Press
 |page                 = 7
 |isbn                 = 9781578517770
 |access-date          = 4 April 2023
 |quote                = [...] around 35,000 years ago [...] we begin to see the first evidence of a more settled lifestyle, with burial sites, cave drawings, and decorative objects.
}} 
</ref>
Around this time, humans began [[trading]] burial-site tools and developed trade networks,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Beinhocker
 |first1               = Eric D.
 |year                 = 2006
 |title                = The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=eUoolrxSFy0C
 |publication-place    = Boston, Massachusetts
 |publisher            = Harvard Business Press
 |page                 = 7
 |isbn                 = 9781578517770
 |access-date          = 4 April 2023
 |quote                = During this period, archeologists also begin to see evidence of trading ''between'' groups of early humans; the evidence included burial-site tools made from nonlocal materials, seashell jewelry found with noncoastal tribes, and patterns of movement suggesting trading routes.
}} 
</ref>
resulting in a [[hunter-gatherer]] lifestyle.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Beinhocker
 |first1               = Eric D.
 |year                 = 2006
 |title                = The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=eUoolrxSFy0C
 |publication-place    = Boston, Massachusetts
 |publisher            = Harvard Business Press
 |page                 = 7
 |isbn                 = 9781578517770
 |access-date          = 4 April 2023
 |quote                = With permanent settlements, a variety of tools, and the creation of trading networks, our ancestors achieved a level of cultural and economic sophistication that anthropologists refer to as a ''hunter-gatherer lifestyle''.
}} 
</ref>
Those who had gathered abundant burial-site tools, weapons, baskets, and food, were considered part of the wealthy.<ref name="Beinhocker Eric D. 2007">{{cite book|title=The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What it Means for Business and Society|publisher=Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition|first=Eric D.|last=Beinhocker|year=2007}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=April 2023}}

[[Adam Smith]], in his seminal work ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', described wealth as "the annual produce of the land and labor of the society". This "produce" is, at its simplest, a good or service which satisfies human needs, and wants of [[utility]].

In popular usage, wealth can be described as an abundance of items of economic [[Value (economics)|value]], or the state of controlling or possessing such items, usually in the form of [[money]], [[real estate]] and personal [[property (ownership right)|property]]. A person considered wealthy, affluent, or rich is someone who has accumulated substantial wealth relative to others in their society or reference group.

In economics, [[Wealth (economics)|net worth]] refers to the value of [[assets]] owned minus the value of [[liability (accounting)|liabilities]] owed at a point in time.<ref>{{cite web | title=WWE Superstars net worth and salary |url=http://topnewsage.com/wwe-superstars-net-worth-and-salary/ |access-date=August 27, 2017 |archive-date=August 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827043330/http://topnewsage.com/wwe-superstars-net-worth-and-salary/}}</ref> Wealth can be categorized into three principal categories: [[personal property]], including homes or automobiles; monetary savings, such as the accumulation of past [[income]]; and the [[Capital (economics)|capital]] wealth of income producing assets, including [[real estate]], [[stock]]s, [[Bond (finance)|bonds]], and [[business]]es. All these delineations make wealth an especially important part of [[social stratification]]. Wealth provides some people "safety nets" of protection against unforeseen declines in their living standard in the event of emergency and can be transformed into home ownership, business ownership, or college education by its expenditure.

Wealth has been defined as a collection of things limited in supply, transferable, and useful in satisfying human desires.<ref name="Graeme O'Geran">{{cite encyclopedia |title=How Wealth is Created |encyclopedia=World Book Encyclopedia |year=1949 |publisher=The Grolier Society  |volume=15 |page=5357}}</ref> Scarcity is a fundamental factor for wealth. When a desirable or valuable commodity (transferable good or skill) is abundantly available to everyone, the owner of the commodity will possess no potential for wealth. When a valuable or desirable commodity is in scarce supply, the owner of the commodity will possess great potential for wealth.

'Wealth' refers to some ''accumulation'' of resources (net asset value), whether abundant or not. 'Richness' refers to an ''abundance'' of such resources (income or flow). A wealthy person, group, or nation thus has more accumulated resources (capital) than a poor one. The opposite of wealth is destitution. The opposite of richness is [[poverty]].

The term implies a [[social contract]] on establishing and maintaining [[ownership]] in relation to such items which can be invoked with little or no effort and expense on the part of the owner. The concept of wealth is relative and not only varies between societies, but varies between different sections or regions in the same society. A personal [[net worth]] of US$10,000 in most parts of the United States would certainly not place a person among the wealthiest citizens of that locale. Such an amount would constitute an extraordinary amount of wealth in impoverished [[developing country|developing countries]].

Concepts of wealth also vary across time. Modern labor-saving inventions and the development of the [[sciences]] have vastly improved the [[standard of living]] in modern societies for even the poorest of people. This comparative wealth across time is also applicable to the future; given this trend of human advancement, it is possible that the standard of living that the wealthiest enjoy today will be considered impoverished by [[future generations]].

[[Industrialization]] emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. [[Labour specialization]] became critical to economic success. [[Physical capital]], as it came to be known, consisting of both the [[natural capital]] and the [[infrastructural capital]], became the focus of the ''analysis of wealth''.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}

[[Adam Smith]] saw wealth creation as the combination of materials, labour, land, and technology.<ref name="gutenberg1">Smith, Adam. ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801054156/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300 |date=August 1, 2020 }}''</ref> The theories of [[David Ricardo]], [[John Locke]], [[John Stuart Mill]], in the 18th century and 19th century built on these views of wealth that we now call [[classical economics]].

[[Marxian economics]] (''see [[labor theory of value]]'') distinguishes in the ''[[Grundrisse]]'' between material wealth and human wealth, defining human wealth as "wealth in human relations"; land and labour were the source of all material wealth. The German cultural historian Silvio Vietta links wealth/poverty to rationality. Having a leading position in the development of rational sciences, in new technologies and in economic production leads to wealth, while the opposite can be correlated with [[poverty]].<ref name="Silvio Vietta 2013">{{cite book|title=A Theory of Global Civilization: Rationality and the Irrational as the Driving Forces of History|publisher=Kindle Ebooks|first=Silvio|last=Vietta|year=2013}}</ref><ref name="Silvio Vietta 2012">{{cite book|title=Rationalität. Eine Weltgeschichte. Europäische Kulturgeschichte und Globalisierung|publisher=Fink|first=Silvio|last=Vietta|year=2012}}</ref>