Intangibles: What about?

Intangibles is one of those shortcuts outsiders employ to eat and have the cake of expediency, lest one gets accused of lack of rigor and/or sophistication.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about them, and this is how they come out in one form of communication.

The question I raise about intangibles should not connote exclusive anchoring in the materialist ontology as much as an invitation for a more adequate repositioning:

How do we fight inflation of intangibles? Of course, I'm assuming we take for granted some level of their arbitrariness, and the reader's general aversion for inflation. 
 

Another similar concept is complex adaptive systems, or simply, complex systems.  The treatment of this complexity is better postponed for now.