3 ms·
He's using the notion of "human capital" which I think is clearly different enough from ordinary capital so as to deserve a different term. Human capital can be
by hderms 11y ago
He's using the notion of "human capital" which I think is clearly different enough from ordinary capital so as to deserve a different term. Human capital can beget ordinary capital if someone works hard for many years, saving their money and reinvesting it, but your average office worker is no more a 'capitalist' than a temporarily homeless man looking for work. Human capital seems differentiated by the fact that it ultimately is traded on the market for wages and generally doesn't translate into any kind of meaningful ownership of the fruits of capital.
- jerf 11y ago"He's using the notion of "human capital" which I think is clearly different enough from ordinary capital so as to deserve a different term" Sort of yes, sort of no. It's important to understand that "physical capital" isn't some sort of magic pathway to wealth, either. If by some weird turn of events I suddenly came into possession of a 20-ton press, it isn't going to do me any good, and just about my only avenue to producing money from it is to sell it to some entity that does know what to do with it. A great deal of "capital" in the industrial world is relationships, organization, and the ability to apply human capital. Simplifying that to "physical goods" leads to weak thinking and bad policy.