What the world needs

Readers of this blog know that I’m not an economist who thinks that economics is the most important subject in the world. I believe in a free economy but I also believe that a free economy is not possible or sustainable if people allow their personal character to be corrupted and eroded.

Some years ago I ran across a few sentences under the title, “What the World Needs.” Unfortunately, no author was listed so I can’t give credit where credit is due. In any event, I have edited it a bit and doubled its size with a few sentences of my own. The result is, I hope, a helpful statement about what the world needs if most of its problems—economic and otherwise—are ever to be resolved:

The world needs more men and women who do not have a price at which they can be bought; who do not borrow from integrity to pay for expediency; who have their priorities straight and in proper order; whose handshake is an ironclad contract; who are not afraid of taking risks to advance what is right; and who are honest in small matters as they are in large ones.

The world needs more men and women whose ambitions are big enough to include others; who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity; who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning and ruthlessness are the three keys to success; who still have friends they made twenty years ago; who put principle and consistency above politics or personal advancement; and who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion.

The world needs more men and women who do not forsake what is right just to get consensus because it makes them look good; who know how important it is to lead by example, not by barking orders; who would not have you do something they would not do themselves; who work to turn even the most adverse circumstances into opportunities to learn and improve; and who love even those who have done some injustice or unfairness to them. The world, in other words, needs more men and women of character.