You raise another angle on wealth and income, and one that savvy researchers do look at. I don't know if development economists have a word for it, but I think

You raise another angle on wealth and income, and one that savvy researchers do look at. I don't know if development economists have a word for it, but I think of it as stability, or a non-monetary safety net. I first was exposed to this idea in Kenya; a friend was losing his job, and I asked what his plan was, knowing that wages are low, and so on. He said worst case, he and his wife would move back to the family farm (un-mortgaged) and build out their cash crops. Although his PPP-adjusted income was lower, lower middle class by American standards, he had something almost nobody under 50 in the 97th percentile has in America; a food and shelter safety net that was fairly resilient, and at the very least, not debt-ridden.