ABSTRACT
Part II of the book examines the roles of personal and collective wealth and income in defining and measuring economic sustainability, i.e., the sustainability of economic performance and growth. This chapter deals with the generation and distribution of individual prosperity, i.e., wealth owned and income received by economic agents. A major part of wealth is capital invested in production; it is heavily concentrated in the hands of the rich. Labor is treated as the major source of national income rather than a factor of production. Large variations in income and wealth within and among countries indicate increasing inequalities, which some authors believe to converge between developing and industrialized nations. Uncertainties about technological development, changing attitudes towards holding wealth vs. spending the income, and distributional policies prevent a conclusive assessment of the sustainability of individual wealth and income.
