And this understanding of theirs has to have a practical side to it. The leaders should know people and their problems and be able to solve them, not just know some abstract ideal. The willingness to freely go beyond the call of duty, to make sacrifices, to choose the difficult thing, to take chances. Not just folly, recklessness, not just physical strength, not even just physical courage, the ability to endure pain, but moral courage, the willingness to act on your convictions even if it costs you something, such as convenience or social acceptance. We must know when to fight and when to flee, what to fear and what not to fear.
Capitalism is wicked because it fosters greed, materialism, consumerism.
We should desire and get and use just what we naturally and truly need, not what the ad-men tell us and sell us. If we all practiced Thoreau's or Buddha's detachment from greed, our present economy would soon collapse. Well then, let it. Let us make a new one, where only natural needs are satisfied. A noneconormstic economy, where people make and use what they truly need.