Freakonomics: Asia's Millionaires - The Millionaire Not Next Door

The article essentially observes that millionaires in Asia now collectively control more money than millionaires in Europe. So there is a lot of economic activity going on and some people are rapidly getting rich. But the average asian citizen still has a much lower salary than a westerner, and public infrastructure is pathetic. A disproportionate amount of wealth is going to those on top of the economic food chain, and that's going to stunt their development.

The founder's gave us a very decentralized system and a very minimal federal government. Needless to say, this has greatly eroded.

The asian economies have become so successful because they have been adopting capitalism. We should be glad.

Our problems are of our own making. We've been incenting people to consume rather than to produce and to go into debt to do it. And government at all levels is borrowing and spending in the mistaken belief that consumption is economic success. It isn't.

We need to start dealing with reality.

The NYT link is just a short snippet doing summary. This is a better link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/06/23/128047942/more-mon...