01275nas a2200109   4500008004100000245004300041210004100084260001200125520093800137100002101075856006901096       2014                        eng d00aWealth, Virtual Wealth, and Capitalism0 aWealth Virtual Wealth and Capitalism  aLeipzig3 a<p>Modern economists have accustomed us to put different things under the words wealth. Some authors of the past tackled more thoroughly the question of the nature of wealth and the correlated question of the role of money. We present three prominent examples of different periods but of a common spirit: the Physiocrat François Quesnay, in 18th. century France, the art-critic John Ruskin in his essay Unto This Last (1862), and the pioneering radio-chemist Frederick Soddy who turned from science to economics in the 1920s. Each one in his own way, they all highlight the flow of “real wealth” as opposed to “virtual wealth” of money, which can endlessly grow. Rejected by the orthodox economists, these insights could lead to an ironic thesis: wealth as the biggest taboo in economics. As a conclusion we will propose to change the word-alternative: "degrowth versus growth", into "real wealth versus virtual wealth".</p>1 aLombard, Gabriel  uhttps://degrowth.community/conference2014/scientific-papers/3729