"Men nearly always speak and write as if riches were absolute, and it were possible, by following certain scientific precepts, for everbody to be rich. Whereas riches are a power like that of electricity, acting only through inequalities or negations of itself. The force of the guinea you have in your pocket depends wholly on the default of a guinea in your neighbor's pocket. If he did not want it, it would be of no use to you; the degree of power it possesses depends accurately upon the need or desire he has for it,- and the art of making yourself rich, in the ordinary mercantile economist's sense, is therefore equally and necessarily the art of keeping your neighbour poor."

John Ruskin1862

Wealth (?), n. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]

1.

Weal; welfare; prosperity; good.

[Obs.] "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth."

1 Cor. x. 24.

2.

Large possessions; a comparative abundance of things which are objects of human desire; esp., abundance of worldly estate; affluence; opulence; riches.

I have little wealth to lose. Shak.

Each day new wealth, without their care, provides. Dryden.

Wealth comprises all articles of value and nothing else. F. A. Walker.

Active wealth. See under Active.

Syn. -- Riches; affluence; opulence; abundance.

 

© Webster 1913.


Wealth (?), n. (Econ.)

(a)

In the private sense, all pooperty which has a money value.

(b)

In the public sense, all objects, esp. material objects, which have economic utility.

(c) Specif. called personal wealth.

Those energies, faculties, and habits directly contributing to make people industrially efficient.

 

© Webster 1913

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