This may be a subtle point, and it is certainly a point that is overlooked by most of the media. But it is an important point nonetheless, and serves as further evidence that global sensibilities today lean more in a capitalistic direction than they did in earlier generations.

And now, back to the White House race. If John McCain is having a difficult time getting traction with his message of keeping tax rates low (and he is), Barack Obama is having a difficult time selling Americans on the supposed virtues of high taxes. But how could this be so?

For most of his nearly 21-month presidential campaign, Senator Obama has made a cottage industry out of hating free market enterprise. He has proposed governmental limits on corporate executive salaries. He has repeatedly expressed indignation over “excessive” corporate profits. He has promised to “reign-in” free trade, and has promised to instill “economic justice” in America (he has never clarified what he means when he says “economic justice,” but he has made it clear that America’s economy is necessarily unjust).

And more than any other economic idea, Obama has throughout his campaign reiterated that it is time to end “Bush’s tax cuts for the rich.” The term itself is misleading, in as much as earlier this decade President Bush and the U.S. Congress cut taxes across the board, not merely for “rich people.” But never mind the facts, Obama has hit political homeruns by putting a bullseye on the backs of America’s highest income earners.

Yet last week Obama backed-off from eliminating Bush’s dastardly “tax cuts for the rich,” insisting that, because of Bush’s ailing economy, it won’t be feasible to raise taxes on the wealthy right away. But why not? His sudden change of heart tells us two things: A) some significant portion of the American electorate is NOT enchanted by his politics of class warfare and envy; and B) just like those of the world’s finance ministers, the instincts of many Americans lead them to understand that wealth creation and productivity comes from the private sector, not from government - - not even from an Obama government.

American capitalism is alive and well, and it won’t be dying-off any time soon. Americans now need to decide whether it is best to elect a President who will nurture the world’s preferred economic system, or one whose passion it is to weaken it.