Who can save the world?

DON’T BELIEVE THE SOCIALISTS;
CAPITALISTS ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO
CAN SAVE THE WORLD

“For sixty known centuries, multitudes of men have lived on this earth. Their situation has been the
everlasting human situation. Their desire to live has been as strong as ours. Their energy has always
been enough to make this earth at least habitable for human beings. Their intelligence has been
great.
Yet for six thousand years, most men have been hungry. Famines have always killed multitudes, and
still do over most of this earth. Ninety-five years ago, the Irish were starving to death; no one was
surprised. Europeans had never expected to get from this earth enough food to keep them all alive.
Why did men die of hunger, for six thousand years?
Why did they walk, and carry goods and other men on their backs, for six thousand years, and
suddenly, in one century, only on a sixth of this earth’s surface, they make steamships, railroads,
motors, airplanes, and now are flying around the earth in its utmost heights of air?
Why did families live six thousand years in floorless hovels,
without windows or chimneys, then, in eighty years and only in
these United States, they are taking floors, chimneys, glass
windows for granted, and regarding electric lights, porcelain
toilets, and window screens as minimum necessities?
Why did workers walk barefoot, in rags, with lousy hair and
unwashed teeth, and workingmen wear no pants, for six
thousand years, and here—in less than a century—silk stockings,
lip sticks, permanent waves, sweaters, overcoats, shaving cream,
safety razors. It’s incredible.
For thousands of years, human beings use their energies in
unsuccessful efforts to get wretched shelter and meager food.
Then on one small part of the earth, a few men use their energies
so effectively that three generations create a completely new
world.
What explains this?”

Not socialism. Rose Wilder, Kansas City, Circa 1906
Courtesy of Herbert Hoover Presidential Library