To say that Western Europe is “poor” would be inaccurate and intellectually dishonest. Compared with developing countries, Western Europe remains wealthy. But that is not the correct benchmark. The real question is whether Western Europe has reached the level of dynamism, innovation, and economic vitality that its history, institutions, and human capital should allow. On this standard, the answer is increasingly no.
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Entrepreneurs, Not the State, Are the Driving Force of the Market Economy
In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises made a claim that remains deeply unsettling to statist thinking even today: the true driving force of the market economy is not the state, not bureaucratic planning, and not public authority—but entrepreneurs. This assertion is not rhetorical. It is a theoretical conclusion rooted in the logic of human action, the functioning of the price system, and the irreducible uncertainty of the future.
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William Wang 