Economic and Accounting Concepts of Income.

Abstract In recent years, discussion of the measurement of income has been largely colored and dominated by problems created by changes in the value of money. Serious as these problems are, they are really secondary ones, for they pre-suppose some basic agreement about the nature and measurement of income during a period of stable prices. Between accountants and economists, it need hardly be said, no such agreement exists. Command over capital resources would seem to be a much fairer guide to the subject's ability to pay taxes, and also to the demand made by the individual on various governmental services such as defense and law and order at the beginning. There is no doubt that when, as individual salary-earners and investors, we think of our personal income for a year, we commonly do not tiunk of it in this way, but rather as a stream of prorated receipts, unaffected by any changes in the value of the tangible assets with which we started the year and certainly as having nothing to do with any change in our future prospects-in our goodwill, in other words-which may take place during the year.