Perhaps, but someone's latent ability to do anything does not provide anything of value to anyone whatsoever. Conversely someone of "modest ability" who takes a

Perhaps, but someone's latent ability to do anything does not provide anything of value to anyone whatsoever. Conversely someone of "modest ability" who takes a risk to actually provide things people want is being, in a way, much less selfish. A man digging a hole in the desert that no one wants, regardless of how much "ability" or "effort" went into the excavation is inherently selfish, but almost every economic system _besides_ capitalism would see that man rewarded handsomely. ...and I'm not trying to be glib about inequality, which I think is the most serious problem of our time. I'm just suspicious that anything we used to try and replace capitalism with would result in a lot of "holes in the desert". Read about the surplus of baby shoes in the Soviet Union... There is something I think of as the "paradox of capitalism" that describes how capitalism is _simultaneously_ the best system for determining prices and the worst form of government.