Wealth

Wealth usually refers to money and property. It is the abundance of objects of value and also the state of having accumulated these objects. The use of the word itself assumes some socially-accepted means of identifying objects, land, or money as "belonging to" someone, i.e. a broadly accepted notion of property and a means of protection of that property that can be invoked with minimal (or, ideally, no) effort and expense on the part of the owner. Concepts of wealth vary among societies.

A person that is wealthy or rich is someone that has accumulated substantial wealth relative to others in that society or reference group. The state of being wealthy is a relative term. Within the United States, having a net worth of $500,000 in the Midwest certainly places you among the region's wealthiest citizens, yet that same net wealth would be considered quite modest on New York City's Upper East Side. A person considered wealthy in West Africa may not be considered wealthy in Southern France.

Tags: wealth