wealth of nations

from laissez faire books/google video: This informative and entertaining video presentation explains exactly why capitalism has always brought prosperity and why socialism has always brought poverty and suffering. It's packed with the kind of facts you want at your fingertips when discussing these kinds of issues. For instance, did you know that...

* In the 20 years before the factory system was widely established in England, over 74% of London's children died before age 5, largely from starvation? And that after the factory system was widely established, that mortality rate dropped to less than 32%?

* The average income of the lowest 10% of those living in the 10 most capitalist nations is nearly two-and-a-half times as high as the average income in the 10 most socialist nations?

[Wealth of Nations] contains... chapters on the Early Colonists, Industrial Revolution, Inventions, Soviet Gardens, Immigration, Compassion for the Poor, Genocide Records, Socialism's Appeal, Democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and more.

The sections on democracy are particularly persuasive, arguing that democracy is much more compatible with socialism than it is with capitalism, and that the Founding Fathers feared democracy as a road to tyranny. It argues that the great contribution of the American political experience was not democracy but the concept of limited, enumerated powers -- an aspect of the U.S. Constitution that has not been enforced since Hugo Black joined the Supreme Court in 1937.