In a website being prepared entitled THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH, I have 
extracted a quotation which goes a long way in distinguishing what is 
wealth from what is not wealth 
 
Henry George (PROGRESS AND POVERTY An Inquiry Into the Cause of 
Industrial Depression and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth, 
1879) recognized the importance of establishing a precise meaning for 
wealth. In Book I, Chapter II, the Meaning of the Terms, he said: 
As commonly used the word "wealth" is applied to anything having an 
exchange value. But when used as a term of political economy it must be 
limited to a much more definite meaning, because many things are 
commonly spoken of as wealth which in taking account of collective or 
general wealth cannot be considered as wealth at all......Increase in 
the amount of bonds, mortgages, notes, or bank bills cannot increase the 
wealth of the community that includes as well those who promise to pay 
as those who are entitled to receive....Increase in land values does not 
represent increase in the common waalth, for what land owners gain by 
higher prices, the tenants or purchasers who must pay them will lose. 
All things which have an exchange value are, therefore, not wealth, in 
the only sense in which the term can be used in political economy. Only 
such things can be wealth the production of which increases and the 
destruction of which decreases the aggregate of wealth. If we consider 
what these things are, and what their nature is, we shall have no 
difficulty in defining wealth 
 
In the Science of Political Economy (Chapters IX thru XXI), Henry George 
analyzes the nature of value and refers to the confusion between wealth 
and value. I agree with Roger Sandilands that it's worth reading. 
 
Roy Davidson