Comment 6 by jcs :

As every economist knows, the market system, based on the free exchange of goods, is the greatest prosperity-generating machine ever invented.

Prosperity = amount of money

There is a fixed amount of money (economy is a closed system)

Therefore prosperity cannot be generated. It can only be moved around.

Prosperity encompasses more than just money/wealth (health, happiness, etc).

There is absolutely not a fixed amount of money. Money is simply a medium of exchange. Exchange of what? Things of value...goods, services, time, etc. In order for there to be "things of value", there must be "things that value", e.g., people. As the number of people in the world grow, the amount of "things that are valued" will grow accordingly, thus the money supply will grow.

It sounds like you're claiming that the first law of thermodynamics applies to prosperity. Saying that "prosperity cannot be generated" is akin to saying that happiness is a zero-sum game. Do you also believe that there's a fixed amount of happiness in the world? That in order for one person to be happy, another person must be made equally UN-happy? That as the number of people in the world grow, we all must dine on increasingly smaller pieces of the "happiness pie"?