Money
This is part of a comment I left on the Democracy in America blog at The Economist, reprinted here 'cause I want to remember it:
Money is not wealth. Money is merely the effect of wealth. Wealth is profitable relationships, whether in the form of a job, a landlord-tenant relationship, a creditor-debtor relationship or an owner-customer relationship. Prosperity comes from managing your relationships well. Which means that it comes from what's in your head, that there isn't enough governmental power in the world to make up for the lack of it, and that real poverty-fighting comes from financial education.
Money is not wealth. Money is merely the effect of wealth. Wealth is profitable relationships, whether in the form of a job, a landlord-tenant relationship, a creditor-debtor relationship or an owner-customer relationship. Prosperity comes from managing your relationships well. Which means that it comes from what's in your head, that there isn't enough governmental power in the world to make up for the lack of it, and that real poverty-fighting comes from financial education.