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0 pointsAlex39178y ago0 comments

In the 1700s capital was considered to be land, because owning land was how you made money — either by working the land or by renting it to others to work.

Whereas today capital is considered to be mainly money, because owning money is how you make more money. E.g. by investing in Google in the 90s, Bitcoin in the 2000s, etc.

So giving people money today is basically the equivalent of giving people land in the 1700 and 1800s.

0 comments

ameister148y ago

Sure, if the us govt said "only land owners should vote, so were giving everyone land" you might have a point.

DoreenMichele8y ago

Whereas today capital is considered to be mainly money

No.

While money is used simply to purchase goods and services for consumption, capital is more durable and is used to generate wealth through investment. Examples of capital include automobiles, patents, software and brand names. All of these items are inputs that can be used to create wealth. Besides being used in production, capital can be rented out for a monthly or annual fee to create wealth, or it can be sold when it is no longer required.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capital.asp

Alex3917OP8y ago

According to that definition, money is capital as long as it's being used as an input to create new wealth rather than to purchase goods and services for consumption. We can see this is empirically true since 95+% of the income gains from the economic recovery have gone to the wealthiest 1%.

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