According to the key function of material stock, it constitutes valuable service infrastructure for society; however, it is also a driver for resource use, an object of technological lock-in, and a challenging waste management issue of the future. In this article, the golden rule of material accumulation is defined by confronting the ability of society to process materials–as the benefit of the capital, with the physical investments–as the cost of the process. Except for two countries with specific conditions (Japan and Switzerland), the level of assets in the analyzed economies performs under the golden rule quantity of capital per worker in material terms. Thus, there is no incentive present to reduce the material stock accumulation in the future under the current economic conditions, neither in emerging nor in developed countries.

根据物资储备的关键功能，构成对社会有价值的服务基础设施；然而，它也是资源利用的驱动力、技术锁定的对象以及未来具有挑战性的废物管理问题。在本文中，物质积累的黄金法则被定义为将社会加工材料的能力——作为资本的收益，与实物投资——作为过程的成本。除了两个有特定条件的国家（日本和瑞士）外，所分析经济体的资产水平在物质条件下每名工人的资本数量的黄金法则下表现。因此，在当前经济条件下，无论是新兴国家还是发达国家，都没有减少未来物质库存积累的动力。