numbers of individuals and families are nearly propertyless and in
so far as this is true there is involved one of the greatest of our
socio-economic problems, that of the distribution of wealth and income
among the people. The more unequal the distribution, the greater, in
all likelihood, is the discontent; and the greater the effort of many
men to find some methods by which greater equality may be attained.

§ 6. #Changes in the price-standard#. These figures, moreover, are
expressed in terms of the monetary price-unit, in dollars of the
gold standard, and therefore the increasing total figure (and
correspondingly, the increasing per capita) may be but the reflection
of a change in the value of the monetary unit. It is well known that
the gold dollar has now less purchasing power than in 1880, and less
also than at any intervening time.[2] To the extent that this is true
the increase in the figures of wealth (total and per capita) is only
nominal and does not indicate increase in the quantity and betterment
in the quality of real wealth. This fact is so evident that it would
seem unnecessary to call attention to it, if it were not constantly
overlooked in citing these figures.

§ 7. #A sum of capital, not of wealth#. Consider further, that the
figures here given for wealth really express but the sum of capitals
of the individuals (or private corporations) of the nation. These
do not constitute a sum of social wealth in any proper sense of the
term.[3] Arithmetically it is a fallacious kind of a total, for the
sum of the individual capitals contains some items that should
be canceled to find the sum of wealth. Moreover, capital is an
acquisitive concept. It is an expression of the value of a man's
possessions, and not of the utility[4] of them. It measures intensity
of desire for goods and not necessarily the degree of welfare. Such a