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Capital assets are one measure of the economic endowment that we pass on to the future. If a nation continues to invest sufficiently and successfully, its net tangible wealth increases.
A common measure of capital assets is the net stock of fixed reproducible tangible. This measure comprises fixed private capital, fixed government capital, and consumer durables, such as automobiles and other goods with an expected service life of three years or more. It also includes equipment and structures (such as bridges, highways, and houses). This measure reflects annual investment and depreciation by the private sector and government, but it does not include human capital, such as direct investments in education and training.
Labor and the stock of capital, primarily in the form of structures and equipment--combined with the unmeasured but essential stock of knowledge--are used to produce the current output of goods and services.
Figure 4.1 shows that since 1970, the net stock of fixed reproducible tangible wealth doubled. This upward trend in capital assets is one indicator of our progress in creating a solid economic foundation for future generations.
For a discussion of chained dollars, see the “Preview of
the Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts:
BEA’s New Featured Measures of Ouptup and Prices,” by Steven Landefeld and
Robert Parker in the Survey of the Current Business, July 1995, pp.
31-38.
Link(s) to be added, when feasible, to data at level of detail suitable
for use at the community level.
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http://www.sdi.gov/indicators/lc_capit.htm Last Modified: May 13, 2002 |