I don't know how many times to say it, or how many different ways to say it: If life is the standard, capitalism is the system to beat. Nothing else ever came close. Andrew Bernstein's particularly succinct defense of capitalism (the unhampered kind, not the kind we see in twenty-first century America, Western Europe or China) is one not to miss -- whether you're already convinced or a newcomer to the subject. I especially like Bernstein's treatment of what he called the "Inventive Period," the time in early American history when there was no Big Government yet and both industry and science took leaps never before seen in human history ... and not since.