The Industrial Age has been an epoch of harvesting natural and social capital to produce productive and financial capital. We have destroyed forests, topsoil, and farmland, and with those the habitat for many species. The loss of biological diversity has been matched by the loss of cultural diversity ... The waste of natural capital (about a ton per American per week) is matched by waste of human capital: vast numbers of unemployed and over a billion of us, today, severely malnourished, many starving. Commerce cures destructive prejudices. It polishes and softens barbarous mores. The natural effect of commerce is to lead to peace.
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