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I'm not revealing any deep, hidden secret that there are wealthy people in Asia.

Every country has rich people. But only a few places have achieved a vibrant and stable middle class. And in the history of the world, none has been more vibrant and more stable than the American middle class.

Rich people in one country don't act the same as rich people in another country.

What seems extraordinary is that the richest countries in the world, in terms of economic output, are the ones where we work hardest.

The fact is that, except for those very few whose wealth is overwhelmingly or entirely inherited, the more affluent have usually worked harder than the less affluent.

In real terms, there is a greater disparity of earnings between the very rich and the very poor.

There are rich people everywhere, and yet they don't contribute to the growth of their countries.

In the Eisenhower era, when earnings over $400,000 were subject to 91 percent taxes and the world was a smaller place, you could count the truly wealthy on one hand: Getty, Dupont, Mellon, Rockefeller, though even those fortunes were being dispersed to children as the old robber barons died off.

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

The richest people are those who have life arranged so they have food for the family and the rent or mortgage paid. After that, at least in my case, it can become a pretty boring existence if wealth is the only objective.