一个经济体系的成败，应当以它对生活在其中的人民的生活所产生的直接影响来衡量。经济增长、财富扩张和金融稳定的指标，应当与社会中民众的困境相关联。经济体系的影响，在此即资本主义，应以它为人民提供的安全感与满足感的程度来衡量。安全感与满足感又可进一步从粮食安全、教育安全、健康安全和人身安全等方面来衡量。衡量该体系稳定性的另一个尺度，是人们对其经济根基所抱持的道德、伦理与意识形态上的信念和信任。

The success or failure of an economic system should be measured by the direct impact it has on the life of the people who live under that economic system. Measures of economic growth, wealth expansion, and financial stability should be correlated to the plights of people in the society. The impact of the economic system, in this case capitalism, should be measured by the level of security and satisfaction provided to the people. The security and satisfaction are further measured in terms of food security, education security, health security, and physical security. Another measure of the stability of the system is the moral, ethical, and ideological conviction and trust in the economic foundation.

在过去的一百年里，主导世界舞台的有两大制度，即资本主义和社会主义。社会主义在二十世纪末之前便以彻底失败而告终，因此本书除非为阐明某一概念而有所需要，否则不予讨论。

Two major systems have dominated the world arena in the last one hundred years, namely, capitalism and socialism. Socialism collapsed before the end of the twentieth century with a complete failure and hence will not be discussed in this book except where it is needed to clarify a concept.