17.3.12

Income vs. capital

Income is when a resource is used within a reasonable period of time (TheFreeDictionary.com).


Capital is when resources are retained and only the profit (income) may be spent (TheFreeDictionary.com).


These concepts are commonly used in economics. I only came across them this week, during a talk given by my colleague. She is not an economist, so she used these concepts in regards to reproductive strategies. I think it is really interesting. An income breeder/spawner, therefore, refers to provision of offspring by using energy “on-the-go”. Basically, during a limited period of time, organisms adopting this strategy use the energy for breeding/spawning at the same time it is being obtained. On the other hand, a capital breeder/spawner refers to those who provision offspring using their energy reserves, which were earlier stored (Houston et al. 2006).

Bearing these concepts in mind, are you an income or a capital person? Would you rather spend all your energy now and be small, or save some to use at a proper time in life and be larger? Yes, if you are a capital person, then you need to be bigger in order to survive through tough times.

I would say it is a good approach to be something in between. I like to live my life at its fullest, but I do agree it is also good to invest in better outcomes, in higher achievements.



Sometimes one, sometimes the other.

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