Wealth

Also known as “social wealth” and “national wealth”. It usually refers to the sum total of the material means and the intellectual products owned by a society or a nation at a specific period of time.

“Wealth” is rich in connotation and consists of various aspects, including all accumulated products of labor (the means of production and the means of consumption), natural resources such as soil, mines, forests, water sources, etc., used in the production process, experience in production and scientific skills of workers as a prerequisite for production, the natural resources that have not yet participated in the production process and are even unexploited, etc. Yet, some of them are potential wealth. In addition to material wealth, scientific theories (including philosophy, natural and social sciences), literary works, cultural heritage, etc., possessed by a society or a nation are also the wealth of that society or nation, i.e., spiritual wealth.

The abundance of a nation’s natural resources is of great significance to the development of its production and the growth of its national wealth.

Wealth, whether material or spiritual, is ultimately created by working people. However, it should not be overlooked that men create material wealth through labor and must have the material conditions such as the means of production. Nature is the first source of these material conditions. Nature provides all the raw natural resources, and labor turns them into wealth. Therefore, nature and labor together are the source of all material wealth. Spiritual wealth is chiefly the sum total of people’s experiences in productive practice and scientific experiments. Without productive activity and scientific inquiry that create material wealth, there can be no spiritual wealth.

In the development of human society, the social manifestation of material wealth varies under different social conditions. In feudal society, wealth chiefly manifests itself as land. In capitalist society, wealth chiefly manifests itself as commodities. In socialist society, wealth manifests itself as the means of labor, the objects of labor and the commodity reserves of various branches of the national economy; non-productive buildings and equipment, the personal property of citizens, the natural resources that participate in the production process, etc. Use-values constitute the material content of wealth, whatever its social form may be.

In different social systems, the form of possession of material wealth varies. In a society based upon private property, the vast majority of material wealth is appropriated by the exploiting classes, and becomes their means to exploit, plunder and enslave the working people. In socialist society, a portion of the material wealth belongs to the whole nation, a portion to the collective of the working masses, and a small portion to individuals, becoming individual property. In socialist society, material wealth is the material basis for developing production, improving people’s living standards and enhancing their well-being. With the development of production, more and more labor is accumulated, and the material wealth grows. This provides much more stronger material conditions for the continuous development of production and the continuous improvement of people’s living standards. Corresponding to the form of appropriation of material wealth, in a society dominated by exploiting classes, intellectual products are also basically in the hands of the exploiting classes and serve their rule. In socialist society, the people are the master in their own house, and the intellectual products are in the hands of the people, and serve the people.