"Human Capital"

A lot of you hate this term. Every time I use "human capital" in a post, I get a ton of comments complaining about it, which always make me stop and think, especially given the prevalence of "human capital" as a term in the workforce and personnel communities.

I think I can understand why some of you don't like it. "Human capital," as defined by Adam Smith, who is widely considered to have coined the term in Wealth of Nations, sounds kind of cold and detatched from. Smith writes:

"The acquisition of such talents, by the maintenance of the acquirer during his education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real expense, which is a capital fixed and realized, as it were, in his person. Those talents, as they make a part of his fortune, so do they likewise that of the society to which he belongs. The improved dexterity of a workman may be considered in the same light as a machine or instrument of trade which facilitates and abridges labor, and which, though it costs a certain expense, repays that expense with a profit.”