Talk-Polywell.org

What so many don't understand is that wealth is something you create. You could have a gold mine under your land and be poor and make a fortune on a small barren island in the right place and the creativity and drive. Of course for a society to become wealthy you need to protect that creativity and drive from the takers and the envious with a rule of law that protects propert rights:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/5085

I agree with the core of the article but I would caution against disregarding chance as a factor in wealth creation, at least at the individual level. (At larger scales one would expect it to average out, but given the huge effect some discoveries have that isn't always the case.)

Most start-ups fail. Most artists flop. Most researchers never discover anything revolutionary. But even the best venture capitalists or publishers can't predict which one of their deals will fail because there is no such thing as a recipe for success. They trusted them all to try, but still most of them won't make it.

I would therefore expect that society to thrive which encourages and enables its people to try – and fail, even repeatedly, without depriving them of the means, advice, and encouragement to try again.

Chance favors the prepared.