The evidence has been conclusive from time immemorial.
Economic systems flourish with private incentives that gratify the innate craving for material acquisitions. Adam Smith called it an “invisible hand” in his landmark “Wealth of Nations,” gospel for the nation’s Founders. Merchants or professionals can become rich only by satisfying the wants of others by offering goods or services at prices they are willing to pay. Private greed converges with public good—a convergence that finds expression in capitalism.
Economic systems that pivot on an alleged philanthropic eagerness to share and share alike invariably shipwreck in poverty and misery. The laborer’s refrain in the old Soviet Union was, “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.” Utopian communities in the United States like Brook Farm became unglued because the industrious refused to let the…
