What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?

What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?

We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.

The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.

Our modern democratic ideal is based on the hope that inequalities will be based on merit more than inheritance or luck.

The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.

I certainly agree that capital is not a one-dimensional object, and that the return on capital takes very different forms for different assets or different people.