A century ago, Max Weber wrote a short book explaining how Protestants’ striving to lead industrious, honest, productive lives eventually provided a foundation for the rise of Western capitalism. Its title: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.1 According to Weber, capitalism had existed in other places and times throughout the world’s history—for example in China, India, Rome, and Babylon—but in none of those places was it as resilient and sustainable as in Western Europe and America.2 As he put it, a “particular ethos was lacking” in those other societies.3