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In 2013, 1% of adults were estimated to hold 46% of world wealth<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=BCDB1364-A105-0560-1332EC9100FF5C83 |title=''Global Wealth Report'' 2013 |access-date=January 22, 2014 |archive-date=February 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214155424/https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=BCDB1364-A105-0560-1332EC9100FF5C83 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and around $18.5 [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1012|trillion]] was estimated to be stored in [[tax haven]]s worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfam.org/en/eu/pressroom/pressrelease/2013-05-22/tax-havens-private-billions-could-end-extreme-poverty-twice-over|title=Tax on the 'private' billions now stashed away in havens enough to end extreme world poverty twice over|work=Oxfam International|date=May 22, 2013|access-date=January 22, 2014|archive-date=December 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223000311/https://www.oxfam.org/en/eu/pressroom/pressrelease/2013-05-22/tax-havens-private-billions-could-end-extreme-poverty-twice-over|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Anthropological views==
{{original research section|date=December 2013}}[[Anthropology]] characterizes societies, in part, based on a society's concept of wealth, and the institutional structures and [[power (sociology)|power]] used to protect this wealth.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} Several types are defined below. They can be viewed as an evolutionary progression.
Many young adolescents have become wealthy from the inheritance of their families.
===The interpersonal concept===
Early [[Hominidae|hominid]]s seem to have started with incipient ideas of wealth,{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} similar to that of the [[great ape]]s. But as tools, [[clothing]], and other mobile [[infrastructural capital]] became important to survival (especially in hostile [[biome]]s), ideas such as the [[inheritance]] of wealth, political positions, [[leadership]], and ability to control group movements (to perhaps reinforce such power) emerged. [[Neandertal]] societies had pooled [[funerary rite]]s and [[cave painting]] which implies at least a notion of shared assets that could be spent for social purposes, or preserved for social purposes. Wealth may have been collective.
===Accumulation of non-necessities===
[[Human]]s back to and including the [[Cro-Magnon]]s seem to have had clearly defined rulers and status hierarchies.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} [[Archaeology|Digs]] in [[Russia]] at the [[Sungir]] Archaeological Site have revealed elaborate funeral clothing on a man and a pair of children buried there approximately 28,000 years ago.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} This indicates a considerable accumulation of wealth by some individuals or families. The high [[artisan]] skill also suggest the capacity to direct [[labour specialization|specialized labor]] to tasks that are not of any obvious utility to the group's survival.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}
===Control of arable land===
The rise of [[irrigation]] and [[urbanization]], especially in ancient [[Sumer]] and later [[Egypt]], unified the ideas of wealth and control of [[Real property|land]] and [[agriculture]]. To feed a large stable population, it was possible and necessary to achieve universal [[wikt:cultivation|cultivation]] and [[city-state]] protection. The notion of the [[State (polity)|state]] and the notion of [[war]] are said to have emerged at this time. Tribal cultures were formalized into what we would call feudal systems, and many rights and obligations were assumed by the [[monarchy]] and related [[aristocracy]]. Protection of [[infrastructural capital]] built up over generations became critical: [[city wall]]s, [[irrigation system]]s, [[sewage system]]s, [[aqueduct (watercourse)|aqueducts]], [[building]]s, all impossible to replace within a single generation, and thus a matter of social survival to maintain. The [[social capital]] of entire societies was often defined in terms of its relation to [[infrastructural capital]] (e.g. [[castle]]s or [[fort]]s or an allied [[monastery]], [[cathedral]] or [[temple]]), and [[natural capital]], (i.e. the [[Soil|land]] that supplied locally grown food). [[Agricultural economics]] continues these traditions in the analyses of modern [[agricultural policy]] and related ideas of wealth, e.g. the ark of taste model of agricultural wealth.
===The role of technology===
[[Industrialization]] emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. [[Labour specialization]] became critical to economic success. However, [[physical capital]], as it came to be known, consisting of both the [[natural capital]] (raw materials from nature) and the [[infrastructural capital]] (facilitating technology), became the focus of the analysis of wealth. [[Adam Smith]] saw wealth creation as the combination of materials, labour, land, and technology in such a way as to capture a profit (excess above the cost of production).<ref name="gutenberg1"/>
==See also==
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