What should be the purpose of our institutions and our lives if not to serve people? Can we find better ways to distribute wealth? Ensure liberty? Can we ever love one another?

The capitalistic marketplace is the most efficient way we know to organize the factors used to produce goods and services. If it has a weakness, it seems to be that the distribution of wealth is uneven. Unintended consequences from meddling with markets often outweigh expected benefits.

Social institutions have not found useful solutions to the problems caused by diversity and increased population density. Poverty remains the number one problem facing diverse societies worldwide. Genocide, racial tension, and crime are but symptoms.

Liberty remains an elusive goal for most and a fading memory for some. Freedom bought with patriot's blood has been replaced by a sense of security bought through a steady erosion of privacy. Political institutions face imperatives to maintain their power to survive rather than to serve. 

Love is something that people do. Individuals act with great compassion. If we could get our institutions to do the same we'd be miles ahead.

Social institutions do little to promote individual happiness and growth. As our wealth increases and basic survival needs are met, greater emphasis on Maslow's higher levels of satisfaction should become goals of our social institutions.