Where did computers, education, opera, roads, bread, trolleybuses, and other delights of civilization come from? Why is the average modern person, no matter how poor he may feel, richer than an Egyptian pharaoh, why is the life of the laziest and stingiest among us more saturated than the lives of our ancestors and includes things that couldn’t even be dreamed of just a few hundred, or even dozens of years ago?
Mainstream economics modestly skirts this question. They mumble something vaguely like “…and then the need for irrigation arose.” Meaning: an unnamed entity suddenly develops a need, says to local scientists: “Come on, urgently invent irrigation for me here! Move it, is that unclear?!” The local scientists reply “yes sir!” and set off at a light trot to invent. This absurd process is best reflected in computer strategy games, where it migrated from mainstream economics. Or take Karl Marx, who wrote something like “Germany’s economy urgently required water mills.” I always wanted to see that—how it requires something, and from whom.
In general, there is no answer to this question—and this is the question of the origin of wealth. Meanwhile, this is the most important question in economics; everything starts with it and ends with it.