The Montaigne Dogma
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), who devised the essay as a literary genre, was one of the most erudite and sceptic humanist philosophers of the XVI century. He personified the French Renaissance’s spirit of freely embracing doubts. Montaigne claims that “…no profit whatever can possibly be made but at the expense of another…”. Montaigne dogma fails to recognize that poverty is what results if wealth is not produced. The erroneous Montaigne dogma has misdirected the attention of governments into expensive and ineffectual “Wars on Poverty”, and wealth redistribution policies, rather than on strategies to promote wealth acquisition. If nations are serious about reducing poverty, they must discard the harmful Montaigne dogma and embrace passionately the freedom for citizens to create and keep wealth.

