Re:Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions?
by specialist on Friday January 22, 2016 @07:39AM
(#10952336)
It's a technical phrase, not a value statement.
Unearned income refers to income received by virtue of owning property (known as property income), inheritance, pensions and payments received from public welfare. The three major forms of unearned income based on property ownership are rent, received from the ownership of natural resources; interest, received by virtue of owning financial assets; and profit, received from the ownership of capital equipment. As such, unearned income is often categorized as "passive income".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unearned_income
This covers the policy debate part, which you may be referring to:
capital isn't unearned - it has to have come from somewhere (perhaps the grandfather generation).