So if passive income is the rational goal, shouldn't that be the measure of national success - numbers that express the shape and scale or aggregate passive inc

So if passive income is the rational goal, shouldn't that be the measure of national success - numbers that express the shape and scale or aggregate passive income. It's also worth assuming that the equity barons (to borrow a term from The Diamond Age) hire capable administrators close to home, who get cushy office jobs and even small profit to invest and get a little equity themselves. One can also discuss more and less desirable distributions between the equity barons and admins. The rest of the world gets nothing, or as little as is necessary to keep the peace, and America remains in undisputed charge until some natural disaster ends human life. And absent any particular reason to spread life beyond our thin and fragile biosphere, we won't. Rather than paper over the ugliness I think we should accept it and see what can be made of it. A nation will have succeeded if it can spread life beyond Earth. It will have succeeded if it can protect it's citizens capacity for a calm, creative, productive life filled with wonder and joy long enough for enough people to realize this, and get to work. It's not going to be easy, and our time is limited.