"Prosperity: Skill and Work Ethic are not the most important factors" - Christianity Today

A skilled artist in Nicaea, Turkey...

Turns out that personal skills and a good work ethic are not the most important factors in arriving at "Prosperity". Skills and a good work ethic are personal qualities, but it takes a whole lot more for an individual to make his / her way in the world.

Quote from a book: "Trust and its inseparable counterpart, trustworthiness, are themes that run strongly throughout Scripture. Trustworthy people are continually held in high esteem throughout the Bible (Exod. 18:20, Neh. 13:13, Dan. 6:4, Luke 19:17, 1 Cor. 4:2, 1 Tim. 3:11).

...some of the plates she painted, but she earns very little.

Trust and the way that a city or town acts, and it ability to create trustworthiness are key to healthy relationships and they are hallmarks of spiritual maturity. But academic research has only recently begun to grasp why they are so fundamental to economic prosperity," writes Wayne Wydick.

Read more.

How does your nation rate on the "trust, income and belief" scale?

The graph in this article is worth a thousand words, ranking quality of life and development against trust and GDP in the World Values Survey. ( PS. Note which countries are mostly: Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Eastern-Buddhist Orient, Muslim and Sub- Sahara.