Cultural depictions of capitalism are almost all negative. There's the Monopoly guy with the top hat and cigar. There's Gordon Gekko saying, "Greed is good." And, most recently, there's the hedonism of the "Wolf of Wall Street." The message is clear: capitalism is selfish. Socialism, or something like it, is selfless. In fact, the opposite is true. Renowned social critic George Gilder offers this startling insight: capitalism, at its core, is first an expression of altruism, that is, of giving. An entrepreneur can only succeed by satisfying a customer's need. This is why capitalism, and only capitalism, can create the prosperity that all societies crave and why all other economic prescriptions are doomed to failure.
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