The Virtue of Riches

How wealth makes us more moral.

Megan McArdle from the July 2006 issue

(Page 3 of 16)

/o:p> /span> /p> p class="CRlargetext c3"> span class="c1">That same suspicion is often applied to the vast wealth we enjoy as a society. Spend time at an anti-globalization rally, and you’ll inevitably hear someone complain that Americans are less than 5 percent of the global population yet consume 25 percent of its output, as if we were somehow stealing the difference from the world’s poor. Such critics also cite the social, economic, and environmental dislocations caused by a vibrant free market. We’re too rich, the activists are basically saying, and our wealth has too high a cost; it’s time to stop thinking about making money and start thinking about all the suffering in the world. o:p> /o:p> /span> /p> p class="CRlargetext c3"> span class="c1"> o:p> /o:p> /span> /p>