wealth

1. General: Tangible or intangible thing that makes a person, family, or group better off.

2. Accounting: Value of an entity's accumulated tangible cash, land, building, etc.) and intangible (copyright, patents, trademarks, etc.) saleable possessions minus liabilities.

3. Economics: Total of all assets of an economic unit that generate current income or have the potential to generate future income. It includes natural resources and human capital but generally excludes money and securities because the represent only claims to wealth. Two common types of economic wealth are (1) Monetary wealth: anything that can be bought and sold, for which there is market and hence a price. The market price, however, reflects only the commodity price and not necessarily its value. For example, water is essential for human existence but is usually very cheap. (2) Non-monetary wealth: things which depend on scarce resources, and for which there is demand, but are not bought and sold in a market and hence have no price. Examples are education, health, and defense.