Capital
(machines, factories, goods, buildings, vehicles) | Natural Resources
(land, water, air, airwaves, nature) |
| All capital is produced. It comes from human initiative. | Natural resources are not produced. No person made them. |
| Without capital, life would still go on. Indeed, civilization got started without any capital. | Without natural resources we would all be dead. Natural resources are necessary to life. |
| We can always produce more capital. Capital can be destroyed or worn out but we can replace it by new production.
| Natural resources are finite. Limited in supply! You can change them, discover them, rearrange them, but no person can create them.
|
| Capital helps us to make wealth. Tools and factories, etc., are very useful but not essential: the first people created wealth directly from their own labor without the aid of capital. | Natural resources are an absolutely necessary ingredient of production. |
| Capital depreciates in value unless it is diligently maintained (by adding more capital). | Natural resources tend to appreciate in value as time goes on. |
| |
| |
