The "Distribution" of Wealth

Doesn't capitalism distribute wealth unfairly?

No. Capitalism "distributes" wealth justly, i.e. to those who earned it, in proportion to how much they produced.

Whom does our "nation's wealth" belong to?

Wealth is not a "collective resource" to be distributed by some totalitarian or his cronies, but is produced by individuals. Wealth belongs to the individual who produced it. It is not an amorphous public good to be distributed by looters for the aid of moochers.

What is wealth a product of?

Fundamentally, wealth is the product of man's mind -- and belongs to each man to the extent that he created it.

In a joint venture how does one determine one's share of wealth?

If many individuals took part in that production, each deserves his share in accordance to how much of it they produced -- as mutually agreed upon amongst themselves by their own free-will. The principle in such instances being: those who produced less, receive less, those who produced more, receive more. A man can neither demand more then he deserves because he is full of "greed", or demand more then he deserves, because he feels "need." All he can demand is what the market -- the uncoerced judgment of others -- will offer him. What is the name of such a principle? It is justice -- the judge in all such cases being the marketplace.

What about "production for use"?

What those who demand "production for use" as opposed to "production for profit" mean is the forced expropriation of the production of some (who are said to have "greed") for the use of others (who are either unwilling or unable to produce it) who are said to have "need." The proper name for this is theft, or slavery.

Are there any limits to wealth?

Wealth, like its corollary knowledge, is not a static quantity, but is potentially limitless. The only limit to one's wealth, in a capitalist society, is the power of one's ability to think and produce and the ability of those around him to think and produce. If one wishes for the wealth of all men to increase only one requirement is necessary -- freedom.

See "Common Fallacies About Capitalism" in Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

This is a more complex issue, which my response does not do enough justice, so I refer the reader to Francisco's Money Speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (pages 410-415 HB). I will be writing more on this topic sometime in the future.