How is it possible for 7 billion human beings to all want the same thing — safety, security, peace, prosperity, opportunity, happiness, and love — yet be unable to produce it for any but the tiniest percentage, even after thousands of years of trying? I pose this question wherever I appear on my speaking tours, but I rarely get a satisfactory answer. That’s because most people do not understand the nature of the problem. As a result, we keep trying to solve the problem at every level except the level at which the problem exists.

First, we try to solve the problems as if they are political. We author legislation, we pass resolutions, we issue declarations and sign documents, we create governments, and then, by vote or by force, we dismantle the governments we have created. We try everything we can think of politically, yet we are faced with the same problems today that we have faced for centuries and, indeed, for millennia.

So we say, “Obviously these are not political problems. They must be economic problems.” And we then try in every way we can to manipulate how cash flows around the problems. We throw money at them (such as sending foreign aid), or we withhold money from them (such as the imposition of economic sanctions). We try everything we can think of economically, yet we are faced with the same problems today that we have faced for centuries and, indeed, for millennia.