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JS Mill in his Principles (1848):

But though air is not wealth, mankind are much richer by obtaining it gratis, since the time and labour which would otherwise be required for supplying the most pressing of all wants, can be devoted to other purposes.

I am bewildered by the above sentence. Mill seems to be making a distinction between "riches" (or "being rich") and "wealth" (or "being wealthy"). But what is this distinction?

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I can only speculate on what Mill meant, but it seems to me that

  1. This is mostly a figure of speech. People sometimes say things like "I have no money, but I am wealthy in other ways", meaning they have something they would not trade for money, i.e. monetary wealth.
  2. If there is a distinction, it is in the concept of ownership. Air is not wealth because I do not own it. There are several things that are beneficial to have (that enrich us) that we do not own and could not easily trade. Health, loved ones, air, etc. One can have, but not own these things, so they are not wealth. (Except in Spaceballs.)
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  • $\begingroup$ +1 although you can get air in the bottle not just in spaceballs google.nl/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/12/15/asia/… $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 ♦
    Jul 14, 2020 at 13:20
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    $\begingroup$ @1muflon1 :) 1000 units seems like a novelty item. You can get compressed air in can in most computer service stores to clean out your laptop. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Jul 14, 2020 at 14:54
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    $\begingroup$ note: compressed air cans don't necessarily contain air - just any inert gas. $\endgroup$
    – user253751
    Jul 14, 2020 at 19:30
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    $\begingroup$ I don't think compressed air cans ever contain air; Wikipedia says they contain hydrofluorocarbons instead. $\endgroup$
    – Tanner Swett
    Jul 14, 2020 at 20:04
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Air and sunlight have great value in use, but no value in exchange.If you come to my farm and I offer you all the air you want to breathe for $50 per hour, you'll just leave since air for ordinary breathing is free of charge for all.Mill uses "richer" in the sense of being better off by having the air, though you can't exchange it for something else you might want like a pair of shoes.

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