Singular or plural?

If we say "The wealth and postion is important for anybody to survive in a better way", then we are treating both of them as a necessary tool required for a better survival.

If we say "The wealth and the postion are important for anybody to survive in a better way", then we treating the wealth and the postion as two tools required for a better survival.

The key here, is 'the'. 'The' before a noun indicates an entity. Thus, multiple 'the's make multiple enities(plural). A single 'the' followed by a list of nouns refer to a single entity(singular).