3. Poverty: again, an issue of form, and hence also of will. Are people mired in poverty because of the form of their circumstances, or because they do not use their will to escape? The answer is: both. What we are actually looking at is a continuum. As we have seen, to the extent that people can exert their will, they can defeat social form, any social form, including the circumstances that lead to poverty. But also, to the extent that a form is overpowering, they will be unable to recover their will. Our ability to eliminate poverty, therefore, is a yardstick for the entire contest, will versus form, and for our ability truly to develop as a species.

(Note: please see the related position on foreign aid.)