[Semper_Volo]

Woops, meant to post this under Blogger/Personal. Apologies all.

[Lancey Howard]

Welcome to Free Republic.
That was a pretty decent column. Good luck with your blog (if that is your blog).

[jsmith48]

...the true source of wealth is not brute labor, or even what you might call brute capital, but the mind. The mind creates new technologies, new products, new business models, new productivity enhancements, in short, everything that creates wealth. Labor or capital without a mind behind it is useless.

Worth repeating.

[wideawake]

Interesting piece, but it has one screaming flaw: the innovation you ascribe to England and the Netherlands was preceded by innovation in Italy. It always peeves me to see the incredible creativity of medieval Italy get short shrift in every account of the development of modernity.

Disclosure: I am not Italian.