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