Moreover, capital is an acquisitive concept.

It is an expression of the value of a man's possessions, and not of the utility[4] of them.

It measures intensity of desire for goods and not necessarily the degree of welfare.

Such a total, therefore, embodies the difficulties of the paradox of value; in some cases increased value reflects a growing scarcity and not greater abundance.[5] For example, between 1900 and 1915, with the growth of population, the total number of improved acres in farms in the United States increased but little, and the per capita number diminished.

At least in part as a result of this fact, the prices of nearly all kinds of food rose rapidly, as did also the price of farm land.