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Concept
Capital accumulation
Summary
Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form of profit, rent, interest, royalties or capital gains. The aim of capital accumulation is to create new fixed and working capitals, broaden and modernize the existing ones, grow the material basis of social-cultural activities, as well as constituting the necessary resource for reserve and insurance. The process of capital accumulation forms the basis of capitalism, and is one of the defining characteristics of a capitalist economic system.
The definition of capital accumulation is subject to controversy and ambiguities, because it could refer to:
a net addition to existing wealth
a redistribution of wealth.
Most often, capital accumulation involves both a net addition and a redistribution of wealth, which may raise the question of who really benefits from it most. If more wealth is produced than there was before, a society becomes richer; the total stock of wealth increases. But if some accumulate capital only at the expense of others, wealth is merely shifted from A to B. It is also possible that some accumulate capital much faster than others. When one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances that the law sees as unjust it is called unjust enrichment. In principle, it is possible that a few people or organisations accumulate capital and grow richer, although the total stock of wealth of society decreases.
In economics and accounting, capital accumulation is often equated with investment of profit income or savings, especially in real capital goods. The concentration and centralisation of capital are two of the results of such accumulation (see below).
Capital accumulation refers ordinarily to:
real investment in tangible means of production, such as acquisitions, research and development, etc. that can increase the capital flow.
Official source
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