Article February 25, 2002 Issue

On nations, business, and ethics

Commentary from South Africa

Bob Tucker

IT HAS BECOME BLINDINGLY CLEAR over the last 20 years that the real wealth of a nation isn't in minerals under the ground, or its work ethic, or the skills and education of its people. The real wealth of a nation lies in its values, and the way those values translate into an institutional fabric.

Because those values are what enable people to relate to each other, to integrate with each other, to work together, and in the process of doing so, to generate wealth. By way of example, what caused England's economy to take off? It was social and political shifts based on new values of democracy, freedom, accountability, and participation.

Those values are unquestionably consonant with love and trust and mutual dependency—the bedrock of human relationships. And it's that bedrock of human relationships on which we build a whole range of different institutions, including legislatures, local governments, businesses, civic clubs, and societies.