I would prefer to allow the argument of this book to stand on its own, without reference to my personal experiences. Yet I would be remiss if I failed to explain to readers that though I am very much an American, I have spent much of my professional life living in and studying countries where the standard of living is much lower than that of the United States. It is for this reason that I, perhaps more than most, appreciate and prize the accomplishment that economic development represents.

Economic development creates better lives for the people who experience it. Because that is so, the premise of this book is that modern economic growth (to use the phrase of the late Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets) is desirable, and that policies and institutions impeding that process should be opposed. My sense is that what separates me from many fellow activists is the priority that I place on the urgency of achieving economic modernization.

To be sure, there is much to be alarmed at in the way the United States uses its wealth, and certainly by advocating economic modernization I am not endorsing a universal replication of this country. Nevertheless, I believe that the application of modern science and technology to production is necessary if the lives of poor people are to be improved. Because I think that, economic development, for me, assumes the status of a moral imperative.