Brian wrote about the fixed quanity of wealth fallacy: the idea that rich people must be stealing from workers, poor people, poor countries, or the planet.

Almost all of us have denounced it in conversation at various times, and literally hundreds of us have denounced it in writing. I now add my attack on this fallacy to the vast pile already in existence.

And it is good that he did, because he writes about it very clearly. One rarely finishes a Brian Micklethwait article without thinking more clearly and knowing more than one did before.

Part of thinking clearly, is identifying the problem:

People who think stupidly about capitalism don’t start by stating the fixed quantity of wealth fallacy as one of their axioms. Rather, they have jumped to their false conclusions about the world and its alleged economic woes by assuming without thinking about it that wealth cannot be created. And you can make them think about it, by simply telling them: wealth can be created. Yes. It truly can.