Significance of Capital

Extreme opinion - Duryodhana said that

“The truly politic man is he who strives after property. None should be attached to property or wealth, for both these, once having been acquir and hoarded, can be plundered. This is the way of kings.”

Moderate opinion - Kautilya says that

“The source of the livelihood of men is artha (wealth); that is to say,the territory [and the inhabitants following various professions] is the wealth [of a nation]. The science by which territory is acquired and maintained is Arthashastra - the science of wealth and welfare.”

Opposing opinion - Kautilya says that

“A man devoid of wealth is in fact not a poor man. He might become wealthy. But one who is uneducated is actually a pauper in all aspects.”

Compound opinion -

A capitalist consumer society indeed is ever focused on the acquisition of capital in form of material goods and money. For a modern capitalist society like USA where new products are released and old products become expired very fast, being unattached to wealth is indeed a virtue. A capitalist society always seeks to increase its GDP and economic value endlessly, which is measured through its citizens purchasing capacity.

It is also true that in a capitalist society the science of economics and finance is geared towards increasing the amount of capital and profit in a business man’s control. This capital can be in form of property, land and even intellectual litigation rights. It is usually seen in capitalist societies that the vast acquisition of wealth in these forms is considered to be part of progress and development.

However categorising people merely according to their immediate monetary worth may be short sighted. Considering a person holistically in terms of talent, skills, personality, attitude etc and cultivating of these positive traits may increase the value of person over time. Much like investments made in promising start ups who may grow into big national or multinational companies allowing to profit off of its shares in the stocks.

In a capitalist system gathering tangible capital and investing in soft capital like talent, skill, education leads to progress.

A capitalist system which solely focuses on physical capital will not make good use of its Human Resources. Which will result fin diminishing returns from physical capital as human intelligence has the power to increase, decrease, maximise value or waste the potential capital.

A capitalist system which solely focuses on investing in Human Resources will not be able to Sustain itself for long.