Poverty and Prosperity: The Principles That Build Civilizations and the Policies That Ruin Them

We live in an age of unprecedented wealth, yet our prosperity hangs by a thread. I watch with concern as politicians erode its foundations while most journalists and voters, who elected them, look away.

That's because we take prosperity for granted. But history teaches that poverty, not prosperity, is the norm. And we are always a few bad decisions away from sliding back into it. Venezuela was once South America’s richest nation; today, it is its poorest.

We have forgotten how we reached our current position and what it takes to sustain it. Instead of celebrating those who create prosperity, we elect those who redistribute it, until only crumbs remain. We optimize the present while neglecting the future.

This book is both a warning and a guide. For wealthy countries, it is a wake-up call: the policy mistakes that can undo decades of progress, and how to spot them before it’s too late. For developing nations, it offers a roadmap to prosperity, showing which strategies work and which do not. Most importantly, it provides everyone with the tools to advocate for better policies, whether at the dinner table or the voting booth. The goal is to help build countries that are wealthier, cleaner, safer, and freer.

The Prologue examines an environmental project in Great Britain to illustrate why efficient public spending matters. Through two fictional countries, Moralia and Pragmatia, it shows how pragmatic approaches often outperform purely moral ones.

Part I, “Scarcity and Abundance,” explores the choices that lead nations to prosperity or poverty. Prosperity arises from creating abundance through efficiency and accountability. A society must produce enough surplus to sustain fairness, health, and sustainability. We need not maximize productivity, but must keep it above a critical threshold: productive nations share prosperity, unproductive ones share poverty.
One key to higher productivity is letting wages signal what society values most, allowing unproductive jobs to fade while helping workers transition. Nations thrive when they treat low wages and high prices as structural issues, and falter when they rely on superficial fixes. Examining global policy errors, the book reveals another path to poverty: misplaced priorities, wasteful spending, and swelling opportunity costs. Instead of debating tax rates, we should focus on using existing tax revenues wisely.

But why do nations so often make poor choices that lead to decline? This question drives Part II.

Part II, “Virtue and Decadence,” investigates the cultural roots of prosperity and decline. Nations decay when they chase luxuries before meeting basic needs or confuse haste with progress.
The dangers of groupthink deserve special attention, especially in identity politics, where the urge to protect "our own" can sometimes excuse poor behavior. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions; therefore, intentions must be subordinate to outcomes.

While Part I offered economic solutions and Part II presented cultural ones, implementing them is not simple. It is essential to avoid becoming tyrants while we pursue prosperity. Part III helps prevent that.

Part III, “Utopia and Dystopia,” explores democracy’s paradox: many autocracies arose from democratic roots. What warning signs signal decline, and how can we reverse it?
It also examines the foundations of civilization and the need to protect rights even for our opponents. Finally, it warns against the illusion that the end justifies the means: coercion cannot build utopia, but creates dystopia. But does this make utopia impossible? I offer an optimistic perspective and a possible way forward.