As socialists see it, true freedom and true equality require social control of the resources that provide the basis for prosperity in any society.
It kept property taxes low for those who already had homes or who could afford to buy them, at the cost of supporting the colleges and other services that provided the earlier prosperity.
In Mexico, Red Familia (Family Network), which has ties to conservative businesspeople and politicians, argues that strong family values provide the basis of economic prosperity.
In the 1990's the city's leaders seem to have believed that unending prosperity would provide the resources to absorb the costs of the borrowing.
"Developing countries need aid but they also need investment to generate inclusive prosperity – to provide the jobs and revenues these countries need to deliver better living standards for their people.
Neither believed in the radical dismantling of programs that protected ordinary Americans, and both believed that a crucial role of government is to provide the infrastructure that makes economic prosperity possible.
While a well-oiled technocracy might smooth our peaks and valleys in Krugman's Keynesian ideal, the reality is that self-interested capitalists provide the most likely path to prosperity.
These, says James Duderstadt, a former president of the University of Michigan, could provide the basis for a new prosperity, especially for his own car-crashed state.For other states less well-endowed, Chicago can offer hope of a different kind: not so much the example of its excellent restaurants or its vast convention centre, McCormick Place, but that of its Navy Pier.
But that, they argue, implies a mistaken reliance on factors such as natural resources, cheap wages or geographic location, and will not provide the basis for long-term prosperity.Instead, countries should think about fostering more sophisticated sources of long-term "competitive advantage".
Government is the segment of the economy that invests in the basics - such as infrastructure, education and research - that provide the fertile ground from which prosperity springs.
