HUMAN CAPITAL
According to Investopedia, "human capital" is a type of "intellectual capital" that defines the value of employees' (for profit) and constituents' (non-profit) "experiences and skills," such as their investment in "education, training, intelligence, health, loyalty and punctuality." According to morale, humans are not supposed to be measured according to economic worth. However, that point is violated by human traffickers, some trade war secrets as "intangible assets," and certain prediction technologies that for example, guess life span based on habit cues, or other x/y/z+ indicators that sort of act as depreciation or amortization summaries (inadequate algorithm healthcare fraud). Astrology is a practice that kind of does this too, as it claims to predict events or people's worth/personalities, and astrologers make a profit from it as a "service" or "consultation." Then of course, the topic of being "fair trade" would denote a company truly values their human capital by paying them "fairly," while many companies that boast about their human capital are not act-u-ally using fair trade practices, or they are polluting areas that damage human/animal environmental health systems.
Certain human capital investments can be calculated as expenses, dedicated to employee retention, training, and appreciation, that can be deducted from taxable income. Examples include how much the company pays out for health benefits, training labor and materials, some production and human resources costs, and of course wages, commissions and bonuses. The Investopedia article cites a company called Skandia, that developed the first model to connect "human capital" and "structural capital" to macroeconomic trends through "intellectual capital" data points, as a sort of "knowledge flow" (similar to "cash flow"), to create "innovation capital" for "development and renewal" purposes. The company uses the model in their reporting structure, and it has been honored as leading tool to further capitalize company values and further explore their "relationship capital" connections.
Another contrary point to make is that when people sue for assault, discrimination, defamation, emotional distress and the like, a judge would eventually have to put a price on the reparative amount for the human suffering- which is sometimes between a company and person's labor or image, and involves monetary settlement and/or prison time. As mentioned, some companies give "fair" employee perks, but when it comes to sourcing materials, they don't go further to fair trade the labor of their product materials. Some companies simply use the term for marketing, and tax related benefit, valuing only some people considered employees worth recognizing (while others suffer), as less companies have proven to truly honor "human capital" as a morally serious imperative. Usually, "human rights" in comparison to "human capital," relates to nonprofit missions- but sometimes nonprofits, and more particularly the "foundations" that grant them, use exploitative and environmentally toxic practices too (a.k.a. the Nonprofit Industrial Complex).
When it comes to hostage trading in war and the Prison Industrial Complex, the idea of "human capital" works at it's most exploitative measure. More often we can find human labor trafficking exploitation (particularly of the less educated), in areas that are designated "Special Economic Zones" (SEZs), which're often dismutual borderlands, while international trade secrets are protected from any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, being a "protected clause" along with underground geographical maps (which hide nuclear bases and other vaults). In that, any public outsider would never be able to request information regarding those certain capital/tol protection structures, which is sometimes the root of evading accountability for some human rights, while paradoxically, is also the most potent protection for national rights (of which "human" definition(s) are at times disregarded for national capitol/tal preferences).
References:
ASEAN. 2023. "How do Special Economic Zones impact migrant workers in Thailand?" ASEAN- Australia Counter Trafficking, Australian Aid. https://www.aseanact.org/story/lpn-research/
Chen, James. 2021. "Intellectual Capital: Definition, Types, Measurement, Importance." Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/intellectual_capital.asp
Fiedorczuk, Julita, Michalczuk, Grażyna. 2016. "SIGNIFICANCE OF SKANDIA ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPROACHES TO CONCEPTUALIZATION AND ASSESSMENT MODELS OF NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL." Optimum Economic Studies. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314979181_Significance_of_Skandia_Achievements_in_the_Development_of_Approaches_to_Conceptualization_and_Assessment_Models_of_National_Intellectual_Capital
INCITE.org. 2004. "Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex" INCITE! https://incite-national.org/beyond-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
Kenton, Will. 2025. "What is Human Capital?" Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp
Landyback, Paxen. 2021. "Petition: The Definition of Fair." Care2. https://www.thepetitionsite.com/298/112/476/the-definition-of-fair/
Fairtrade.net. nd. "What is Fairtrade?" Fairtrade International. https://www.fairtrade.net/en/why-fairtrade/what-we-do/what-is-fairtrade.html
