At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own.

For generations, many thought prosperity was material stuff: factories and forests, gold mines and gross tons of concrete poured. But we now know that these things are merely the fringe benefits of wealth. Stalin built his factories, Mao paved over the peasants. But all that truly prospered was misery and alienation.

A recent World Bank study found that a nation’s wealth resides in its “intangible capital” — its laws, institutions, skills, smarts and cultural assumptions. “...

At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own.

For generations, many thought prosperity was material stuff: factories and forests, gold mines and gross tons of concrete poured. But we now know that these things are merely the fringe benefits of wealth. Stalin built his factories, Mao paved over the peasants. But all that truly prospered was misery and alienation.

A recent World Bank study found that a nation’s wealth resides in its “intangible capital” — its laws, institutions, skills, smarts and cultural assumptions. “Natural capital” (minerals, croplands, etc.) and “produced capital” (factories, roads, and so on) account for less than a quarter of the planet’s wealth. In America, intangible capital — the stuff in our heads, our hearts, and our books — accounts for 82 percent of our wealth.

Any number of countries in Africa are vastly richer in baubles and soil than Switzerland. But they are poor because they are impoverished in what they value.

i'm surprised you don't acknowledge that what is operating here in america and in the g8 is nothing resembling a free market approach to capitalism, but rather state sponsorship of corporate interests that keep investment banks fluid.

that's not the free market, that's highbrow welfare, and it's totally unsustainable without cheap transportaion of goods. plus, you say that a nation's wealth is measured in intangible things, yet these corporations profit immensely from the cheap, underpaid labor in other countries that lack the desire to enact such noble reforms.

i agree that capitalism is the best way ever invented to create wealth, but concentrating that wealth is a sure way to disable ...

i'm surprised you don't acknowledge that what is operating here in america and in the g8 is nothing resembling a free market approach to capitalism, but rather state sponsorship of corporate interests that keep investment banks fluid.

that's not the free market, that's highbrow welfare, and it's totally unsustainable without cheap transportaion of goods. plus, you say that a nation's wealth is measured in intangible things, yet these corporations profit immensely from the cheap, underpaid labor in other countries that lack the desire to enact such noble reforms.

i agree that capitalism is the best way ever invented to create wealth, but concentrating that wealth is a sure way to disable capitalism's most ennobling qualities, and leads to calls for socialism. socialism and capitalism can coexist, and they must.